Guelph is a great place to foster and develop new ideas and opportunities. It’s got incredible diversity, and a growing population that’s always eager to step up and contribute…

…So why not help make local news sustainable by helping to build Guelph Politico?

Since the Guelph Mercury shut its doors and ceased publication in 2016, the Guelph community has been apoplectic about not having a daily newspaper anymore, but the truth is most of them didn’t care enough to support it while it was here. When the Mercury closed, barely 9,000 people subscribed to it. In a city of 120,000 people and growing, only 8 out of every 100 people paid to keep the paper printing.

Local news needs local readers to support it. In the past, people would support their papers by buying them on the newsstand, having them delivered daily through a subscription, and paying to place classified ads to sell and find things. So this is not a new idea. I’m asking you to go back in time just a little while to when a couple of cents from you every day helped cover the city and people you love.

A donation of just a couple of dollars per month will not only help Guelph Politico do the work its doing, it will also create opportunities to expand the site, hire more people, and find new and interesting ways to cover the Royal City from all the angles. If those 9,000 people that subscribed to the Mercury at it’s end gave $1 per month to Guelph Politico, they would make it possible to add additional staff or freelance contributors, a dedicated podcast producer,  equipment upgrades, and it would add to coverage of committee meetings at City Hall, or perhaps, Wellington County or Boards of Education.

Yes, these are scary times for the news business with financial pressures, and “fake news”,  but with your participation, you are also buying accountability on the part of Guelph Politico to you, the readers and funders of the site. If Guelph Politico doesn’t service you, tell us how. But if you want to grow a new media culture in Guelph and beyond, we have to prove that someone(s) can make a living doing it. Civic duty is fine, but it doesn’t put a roof over your head, or food in your stomach.

So, if you would like to contribute to the production and dissemination of news and information in Guelph through Guelph Politico, you can do it a couple of pays:

You can subscribe monthly though Patreon.

You can make a one-time donation through your PayPal account of credit card.

Or you can do it the old-fashioned way by sending a cheque through snail mail to:

Guelph Politico
P.O. Box 1241 Guelph
Guelph, ON, N1H 6N6

(Please make out the cheque to “Adam A. Donaldson” and write “Guelph Politico” in the memo line. Also, please include your contact information, especially email.)

Thank you to everyone that supports Guelph Politico. Your efforts are noted, and appreciated.