Notes On The News: A big helping hand and facing the big financial gap that remains

Hundreds of donors get the Juneau Independent’s second year off to a promising start, but we’re still grappling with how to get a mix of donors, ads and sponsors to cover our costs

Managing Editor Jasz Garrett edits this column on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

We’re now covering about 70% of our costs rather than 50% and have enough funds in the bank to cover that gap long enough to get a sensible plan in place.

Which is cause for tremendous thankfulness, but means the situation isn’t yet solved.

A month ago I made the painful acknowledgement the Juneau Independent can’t survive a second year operating the way it did during its first. The response was immediate and immense. Nearly 800 donors provided more than $60,000 during the past 30 days. Our expenses have been averaging about $25,000 a month, so the impact of that collaborative effort is substantial.

Equally important is the support it shows for our efforts to cover local news as thoroughly and fairly as possible as a public service, especially when confidence in news media is shrinking while efforts to monetize and politicize it are growing. That is making me more resolute about preserving the quality and integrity of the Juneau Independent’s news operations as we discuss closing our financial gap. I’ve seen way too many publications over too many years turn into shoddy products for the sake of improving the bottom line.

Speaking of appearances, people may have noticed some tweaks to the site lately. It’s because the person who designed our logo — Leo Kotlarov — is our new webmaster and he’s working on things that can look and function better. So if you’re seeing things you like or dislike on the website, let him know at leokotlarov@juneauindependent.com.

What the situation looks like now

About $8,000 of the past month’s donations came from people signed up for monthly contributions, so that covers nearly a third of ongoing monthly costs. Advertising as of this moment covers $5,500. Add what we typically get in other donations during a month and the total is about $17,500 — or roughly 70% of costs, as mentioned above.

That leaves a $7,500 monthly gap we have to fill. Mathematically, that could happen with any of the following: • 375 more people donating $20 a month.

• 15 more advertisers buying ads at $500 a month.

• Five major sponsors and eight regular sponsors (read on for details) making one-year pledges at $10,000 and $5,000 each, respectively.

A mix of those is likely, plus perhaps some grants and other things we’re chasing.

Much as I’d love to be a paywall-free online newspaper funded entirely by reader donations, the odds of success even in a community like Juneau are very long indeed. In addition to helping us, residents stepped up hugely when KTOO saw its federal funding slashed. That gives us lots of motivation to keep trying to report the news well since clearly there’s an appreciative audience. But there’s also the recognition everyone has their financial limits.

Ads have been around as long as newspapers — as a kid I used to pull the circulars out with the comics in the Sunday paper to see what electronics were on sale, so it’s not like I have a problem with them in general.

But much of the stubbornness mentioned above is my insistence that ads don’t encroach on the integrity of the news (and other articles). I’ve rejected having them appear in the middle of stories, for instance, since there’s too many ways that can go wrong (i.e., election ads showing up in election stories).

I also feel it doesn’t do anyone — including the advertisers — any good if readers feel overwhelmed and annoyed by their presence. So there’s something of a jigsaw puzzle discussion going on right now about how/where more ads can be placed that 1) make the advertisers feel they’re getting their money’s worth and 2) don’t have a detrimental impact on our news content. Our webpage for advertisers shows how that discussion is taking shape so far.

Sponsorships are being offered as of this week — and one of the first things we’ll have to do is make it absolutely clear to everyone how those differ from ads. The big ones for the average person are:

• Sponsors get their name/logo — but no sales pitches — as one of the "bricks" in a designated area of the website, plus our daily email newsletters and an acknowledgement on social media. It’s purely a statement of support for the Independent’s news coverage. I will resist — using pretty strong language — any hint that a sponsorship should have any influence on how and what we report.

• Sponsors are paying a large annual sum — $10,000+ as a "Lede" sponsor, $5,000+ as a "Byline" one (I went with newspaper lingo rather than the typical "gold" and "silver"). Ads are typically sold by the week or month.

Our 14th chapter and beyond

It’s near-certain that our longer-term plans will be more complex than balancing our current budget.

Adding sponsors and more advertisers means more consulting, design, website and accounting work for our small business staff (a part-time business manager, part-time webmaster and ad manager who works on commission). But if we add an employee to handle extra work, then we need a lot more donors/ads/sponsors to cover that person’s costs, let alone improve our bottom line.

It’s a tricky issue. Among other things we’ve discussed is making a candid plea seeking ad sales help from someone willing to volunteer their expertise part-time. If someone wants to volunteer with the Independent, they can contact Lori Thomson at lcthomson18@gmail.com.

Also, as I noted in my previous column about our situation, there is a strong desire to add at least one more full-time reporter.

In addition to everything above I’ve mentioned in terms of funding, we’re applying for grants, matching programs and other resources. But so are many other organizations, especially with nonprofit newspapers growing at a rapid rate, and funds available from some of those grant providers are shrinking.

So that’s a catch-up on where the Juneau Independent stands as it begins its 14th month of publication. If this seems like an ending with a "to be continued" notice that’s because it is — we don’t know yet where the story is going from here. But there are more known chapters ahead than there were a month ago, and that is due to everyone who contributed to help ensure we can write them.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.