A sunset view from the Baltic Reports Vilnius office. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.
Dear readers,
First of all I would like to thank you for choosing Baltic Reports as your news source.
Since we launched the website in August, our readership has grown steadily. I believe that’s because we are currently the best English-language news source for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Baltic Reports has been free to view thus far, but that’s changing starting today.
I’m sure you are all aware of the economic situation in these countries. Unfortunately, finding enough advertising to pay the salaries of the journalists providing you with these articles is simply impossible.
Since it’s start, Baltic Reports has been a very “do-it-yourself” project. We don’t have any wealthy backer like The Local or The Baltic Times. In fact, we have no outside investment at all.
While not having many ads or an investor helps maintain the purity of the editorial product, it does not pay anyone’s salary. Most of the journalists writing for Baltic Reports have received little to no pay so far despite all their hard work. Obviously that is unsustainable.
This is why we asking you to pay a subscription to keep Baltic Reports running. In different economic circumstances it would not be necessary, but if you’ll chip in a little bit to keep us going I promise that not only will you continue to get the coverage you’ve come to enjoy but even more, as we’ll have the financial resources to hire additional staff and do more investigative reporting.
Our commitment to accurate, unbiased and timely reporting will not change. We’ve always taken our relationship with readers seriously. I respond to your emails and comments and will continue to. Now the relationship is going to the next level — by subscribing to us, you’re investing in us, and rest assured we will work our tails off giving you the best news product possible for your investment.
After all, the news is what we love doing. That’s what’s kept us going these months with little or no pay.
I encourage you to subscribe to Baltic Reports and keep abreast of the latest news from this part of the world. This year is looking to be just as turbulent as the last, and if you’re investing in the Baltics or living here, knowing the latest news is essential.
With humility and respect,
Nathan Greenhalgh
Editor
Baltic Reports
Damn. I was quite enjoying the site, and now you’ve gone all Baltic Times on our asses.
Can’t you fund through advertising – seems to work on the vast majority of online news sites?
Whilst I do have some reservations, on the whole the quality of the journalism on here is noticeably superior to that of the Baltic Times (which is generally absolutely devastatingly awful). Somehow, I suspect the subscription model they use (and which you’re now going for) doesn’t make them enough money to employ quality journalists.
Anyway, I’m afraid I can’t afford to pay, so I’m out. I don’t expect you to work for free – I’m just disappointed that another model that doesn’t require the readers to pay can’t work.
Visited BT enery other day, really. Sad to hear this. Good luck in future.
*every
I’m personally sincerely disappointed. It seems a bit of a stretch to expect people to pay for a subscription to such a low level news source, with very limited content. For example the Times offers all nearly all their new content for free and a subscription to them would let me access there extensive and high quality archive of news with articles from some of the best journalists in the world. That might be a subscription worth considering. This on the other hand seems nothing short of a joke. Like being asked to pay to go to a minor league game, when major league games are free of charge.
A donation system or corporate sponsorship would seem like a more sensible solution. Only time will tell how this will play out for you, but I for one will get my Baltic news fix somewhere else.