Important changes coming for the Squirrel (please read)!

Dear readers,

I’m writing to let you know about some changes coming to the Lincoln Squirrel. I really enjoy bringing town news to Lincolnites—so much, in fact, that I’d like to devote even more time this pursuit. Although I’ve had a part-time job since I started writing Lincoln stories, I can’t spend even more time on the Squirrel (my first love) without earning more income from it. What this means is that starting on April 1, the Squirrel will cost $3.99 a month.

There’s no need to worry about making the transition—my web developer and I have worked hard to make it as painless as possible. After you choose a password and enter your credit card information, you’ll only need to log into the Lincoln Squirrel website once on each device (home computer, smartphone, etc.). Your credit card will automatically be charged once a month through PayPal. If you prefer to pay by check or credit card over the phone, I can do that as well.

Because I’m so grateful to all those who have made voluntary monetary contributions to the Squirrel, I’ll provide discount codes to everyone who’s donated in the past 12 months entitling them to six months of the Squirrel for free.

As a paid subscriber, what can you look forward to? Among other things:

• A new, cleaner look that will make the Lincoln Squirrel easier to read and navigate.
• A dedicated web server to make the site (I hope) faster and avoid server glitches such as the one we experienced in January.
• A responsive website that will automatically adapt its appearance to whatever type of device you’re using.
• More time for me to devote to running the Squirrel and covering Lincoln news.

The bottom line: you’ll get your Lincoln news and features just like you have for the past three years, and it will still cost less than the local paper ($47.88 a year for Squirrel stories in your inbox almost every day, compared to $69 a year for weekly newspaper home delivery).

I’ve given a lot of thought to this in the past several months, and I’m really looking forward to the long-term benefits for everyone. This evolution will let us continue to create and read community journalism without a corporate go-between. Like you, I love getting information from the web for free, but this model isn’t sustainable for local news websites like the Squirrel that have far fewer resources than The Boston Globe, The New York Times, etc.—news outlets that once earned most of their money from print advertising but now also charge for unlimited online access.

I’ll have more information in the coming days about how to subscribe. Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions or comments about this change. I look forward to your continued readership, and I very much appreciate your loyalty!

Sincerely,

Alice Waugh
Editor, the Lincoln Squirrel
781-259-0526 (h)  |  617-710-5542 (m)
lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com