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Local US news blog begs for reader donations

Posted: 02/12/04 By: Jemima Kiss
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Portland's local community site the Portland Communique is appealing for readers to donate money in a last-ditch effort to keep it afloat.

The US site has previously depended on reader donations and the private funds of founder and reporter Christopher Frankonis. Local newspaper the Willamette Week has picked out the site for its Give Guide, which encourages fundraising for local good causes.

Mr Frankonis launched the site in 2002. Since then he has gathered a dedicated readership for his reliable and independent view on local news.

Readers have been prepared to donate money in the past because they trust and value the site, said Mr Frankonis.

"Some larger more nationally-known bloggers manage to get some reasonable amount of money out of both contributions and advertising, but that doesn't seem to scale very well down into locally-based smaller-market endeavours, at least if you take my experience as a guide," he told dotJournalism.

The results of the fundraising campaign through the Willamette Week will be announced in January. Without the necessary funding, the site will stay up as an archive but no new reports will be posted.

"As a writer involved in this experiment, a pared-down site or one restricted to commenting on the news rather than also providing original reporting holds little to no motivation," said Mr Frankonis.

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