New Examiner Foundation Built, Construction to Come
Membership Program Launches
After 30 months of tweaking, fiddling, and ultimately fundamental change, we’ve finally arrived at a place I can foresee (generally speaking) as our new normal.
The Examiner has always been a fun but bumpy ride with many ups and downs over the past 15 years.
But the last two and a half have been a true rollercoaster — good and exciting times mixed with occasional nausea.
Here’s a recap:
March 2020
Global pandemic upends already battered local news industry; hundreds of newspapers perish
April 2020
We’re rescued by you after joining COVID Local News Fund via the Local Media Association
May 2021
Substack awards us a grant to launch a news product on its platform
July 2021
We hire former Westchester Magazine editor, others and start Examiner+ digital newsmag
October 2021
New York Times profiles our launch
November 2021
Facebook Journalism Project picks us to join Accelerator program
February 2022
Columbia Journalism Review showcases our story as Substack Local case study
May 2022
Gain Trust Project entry, instituting initiative’s eight ways to enhance transparency, journalism
July 2022
With digital subscriptions growing but expenses soaring, we scrap newsmagazine concept
Today
Ditch transactional Substack subscriber approach. Pivot to audience-supported membership model where we deliver bonus content and more hyperlocal community news funded by you. But also provide extras like no-charge advertising for your favorite local charity, free show tickets, discounted restaurant deals, special film center prices, the publication of your pet photos, and much more.
There will undoubtedly be new twists and turns and shifts in different directions between our print and digital platforms. We’ll be rolling out an exciting website redesign in the coming weeks, and we’re taking significant steps to improve our print newspapers.
But the foundation is now constructed as we continue to rebuild for a stronger journalistic future.
If you joined Examiner+ already, you’re all set! But if you haven’t, and you’d like to join your friends and neighbors in our growing community, support our efforts to cover more local news, and get fun, free stuff along the way, click here to join us as a member.
Examiner Publisher Adam Stone founded the company in 2007.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
