As the High Plains Reader approaches its 33rd year of existence in early September, we are reinventing ourselves to operate in an ever-changing media world. Our June editorial let you know what we are facing and where we are going. This month’s edition of HPR marks the re-launch of our expanded web presence at hpr1.com.
This has been a huge project for well over half a year. The new site is intuitive and nostalgic and will prominently display content from the past, along with new, in-depth coverage of local news, art, food and the stories that matter most to our neighbors across the region. It’s also a tool to connect HPR with its extended family — its reading audience, its community.
It’s also a direct vehicle to ask for financial support from readers who share our vision and our commitment to local journalism. When you visit our site, it will prompt you to look at options to support our news operation.
Sponsorship tool
We’ve never had paywalls, nor have we had paid subscriptions. Our content has always been free to the public. Yet this is where papers like ours are going or have gone lately — they are asking support from their people. If High Plains Reader’s decades of coverage have been important to you and your community, please consider sponsoring local journalism.
Immediately upon accessing our new website, a prompt will appear asking if you’d like to contribute financially at hpr1.com/donate/. This tool will track donations and help us grow our audience even further. You can contribute once, or set up a recurring amount, as per your preference. Any and all funds contributed will be invested in local journalism, just like we’ve done for over 30 years.
We also intend to keep printing a monthly newspaper as long as we can. We’d like to keep putting out an actual, physical newspaper forever. We currently distribute 10,000 copies the third Thursday of each month. Yet even that world is changing. The cost of printing keeps rising and we’ve seen so many presses close, so we are nervous about printing affordably in the future.
Newsletter launch
We have more exciting news for you as we embark on this new journey. HPR will be creating a new newsletter to keep in touch with each of you more directly. We will be growing this communication tool, but need your permission to send it to you. If you’d simply sign up, that would be sincerely appreciated.
The newsletter will share our newest stories. It will also give you news updates, take you behind the scenes at High Plains Reader, share insider tips and deals and make it easier for you to suggest future stories. It’s a fun way to introduce you to our team, reflect on what’s unfolding across our region and start a conversation about stories that are timely and valuable. And it’ll be a good way for us to be more informal with each other.
You can sign up in several different ways. Click on “Subscribe” at the top right hand side of the webpage or “Newsletter” on the bottom left. You can also go directly to hpr1.com/join-now/.
Ad sponsorship
For years, High Plains Reader has been a vocal and passionate arts and culture cheerleader. We shine a spotlight on local entertainment, the new bohemian-type community. We take pride in having our fingers on the pulse of arts and culture, food and entertainment happenings.
Well, here is yet another way you may want to help your neighbors. We all know that some of our mom and pop small businesses are absolutely struggling to keep their doors open. We can relate, frankly.
Maybe you have a favorite place. Maybe it’s a restaurant or a bistro, an all ages venue or the perfect spot to send others because you know they’ll love it as much as you do.
If you’d like to buy an ad in HPR for your favorite businesses, we’d love to help you do that — and we’re guessing they’ll love it too. And they’ll appreciate your support and your faith in what they do.
Talk to us at HPR. Let’s see what we can do to give them a shot in the arm. To get this ball rolling, simply go to hpr1.com/advertising.
Thank you
We can’t thank you enough for being supportive of local journalism. We’re the only indie newspaper now in its thirties in the state. Since September 1994, when the very first High Plains Reader rolled off the presses, it’s been an incredible and valuable resource in the Grand Forks and Fargo region.
We aren’t done. We’re simply reinventing how to do what we do best in these changing times. Feel free to reach out to Sabrina and Bryce with your story ideas or suggestions at hpr1.com/story-ideas/.
We’re gearing up for the next 30 years. Stay with us. We’re all in this together. The Little Newspaper That Could is entering a new era, thanks to you.
