Our content is our legacy: The little newspaper that could persists

By John Strand

It took us over 30 years for us to reach out and ask for your help. The High Plains Reader has always been subscription free and paywall free. Our content has — and always will be — free to access for all of our readers. Our content, past and future, is our currency and our legacy.

Yet journalism is under attack. Costs are rising and local publications are folding. We desperately need you to help us preserve local journalism for the next generation.

The High Plains Reader has always fought the good battles and always stood by the little guy. As an underdog ourselves, we provide a platform for those who are struggling to fit in, to blossom and to flourish. We help our neighbors strengthen their voices in what can feel like a voiceless abyss.

Yet, change is inevitable. And this is where you come in. HPR’s future will be decided by its community, its readers and supporters and its extended family.

High Plains Reader is undergoing a major online revamp. Our website is the hub of our future outreach. It will bring us endless opportunities to expand community content featuring often overlooked perspectives. It also provides a vehicle to protect as much historically relevant content as possible for future generations and provide instant public access.

These are stories that shaped art and culture. Think Standing Rock a decade ago, our unparalleled coverage by C.S. Hagen. Think Jonny Lang. Shannon Curfmann. All our movie reviews by Greg Carlson. Our legacy of opinion pieces by Ed Raymond. Think of when HPR was front and center with movements that were necessary and relevant here in this conservative bastion otherwise known as North Dakota. Women’s rights. LGBTQ rights. Countering white supremacy. Fighting for library access. Social justice issues of every kind, some unimaginable except for the fact that they happened here, where we are.

But we need your help to keep funding this in-depth coverage. Please donate immediately and, if possible, regularly. You are the difference between High Plains Reader existing — or not.

We used to pride ourselves as being “The Little Newspaper That Could.” And we did. HPR outlasted numerous publications that all came and went. None are in their 33rd year, except us.

We’ve had to adjust. During the pandemic, we switched from publishing weekly to monthly. High Plains Reader is now available in more communities than ever before. And our website will take us deeper into communities across the region and beyond. Going forward, we expect to continue to print monthly, distributing 10,000 issues across communities in North Dakota and western Minnesota.

With your help, we can continue printing. It’s that black-and-white.

We’ve fought for you, for our folks who don’t have life easy, for those who easily fell through the cracks. Don’t let that happen to the only long-standing independent news media in North Dakota and western Minnesota. Please.

Donate now. Be generous. Make it monthly, if at all possible. Any contributions are welcome via checks to HPR in the mail. Our mailing address is 124 8th St. N., Fargo, ND 58102.

Soon, our relaunched website will have links readily available to make donations easy and simple. We are looking at mid-July for that formal online switchover. Keep an eye on hpr1.com to learn more about the official date.

In the meantime, tell others who your favorite independent news source has been since 1994. Tell them about us. Word of mouth can make or break a business, as you know. And, as always, thank the businesses and advertisers who have funded this media enterprise by purchasing ads in our publication. They footed the bill.

Now it’s your turn. Please help.

And know you are part of a community that cares and that fights unapologetically for what’s right. We’re The High Plains Reader. And with your help, we’re here to stay.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thanks to all who’ve been part of our journey to this point. And thanks to each of you who invests in more local journalism by contributing.