EDITORIAL

Many of you aren’t going to like what I write here, but it looks like it’s about time to turn the cows out to pasture and give up the farm.

Atmore Free Press, which strives to be your main source for local news, is on the brink of becoming just a brief footnote in the history of local news coverage. I can operate the site for about another two weeks without some kind of financial help.

It might seem like I’m copying Wikipedia, but I like to think it’s more like Public Television. I know it’s not fair for the few to pay for the many, but I’ve tried everything I can to avoid it.

Since August 1, when I first launched the Facebook portion of Atmore Free Press, more than 900 people have signed on as “friends.” Yet, among the few people who showed up for Monday’s fundraising yard sale, none — not one — of those friends showed up. (I know, it was a holiday, but Jeez, Louise.)

Maybe you’re satisfied with the news you get from the local newspaper, or the scraps of local coverage from northescambia and the Mobile television stations.

To be fair, a couple of businesses have paid to sponsor the Facebook page, and several individuals have made in-kind donations and provided valuable services or advice to this effort.

Amond that last group are Myrna Monroe and Sherry Digmon, Bubba and Cindy Tedder, Russell Robinson and Ann Powell, Jonathan and Mandie Thompson, Larry and Betty Houck and Jerry Gehman. And I appreciate the heck out of each.

I have raked, shoveled, hauled junk to the recycling yard and sold many of my personal belongings to try and keep Atmore Free Press alive. But, when I do all that, I have to abandon the online news service for several hours, then try to catch up.

I’m not in this for the money, but internet service, rent, lights and water, groceries and gas, etc. have to be paid. The volume of use is also taxing the abilities of my computer, so that has to be figured into any future plans.

If you like what Atmore Free Press is trying to do, please send some aid, whether it’s $5 or $500.

Checks or money orders can be mailed to Atmore Free Press, 204 Marshall Ave., Atmore AL 36502. Or you can call or text me at 251-294-3564 or send a message to don@atmorefreepress.com, and I’ll come collect whatever you can afford.

I’m more than slightly embarrassed to even suggest that you help pay for quality local news, but I’m at the end of my rope and have no other options.

If you can help, you will see news coverage that goes beyond what you’re getting from other local sources. If you can’t, you can’t. No hard feelings.

Without your help, I’ll have to close it down in a few weeks and look for a steady job, and those are not easy to come by these days, especially for a 71-year-old newspaper reporter.

If you’re not really interested in quality news coverage enough to help fund it, I understand. But if you like what I’m doing, and you have some extra cash lying around, I could sure use a little bit of it.

There it is, the whole enchilada as they say. If Atmore Free Press is destined to fail, it will. But if the folks in Atmore and the surrounding area want it to stay alive, it will.

Thank you for the support you’ve already shown. Thank you in advance for helping keep this thing going.

DF