The Daily Planet’s spring membership drive is underway. In honor of the occasion, we are featuring a day-by-day countdown of the top 10 reasons why you should support us by becoming a member:
1. We aren’t just about journalism – we’re about change. We are trying to create the kind of news site that people from every segment of our community can use to share information, to deliberate, to collaborate, and to work together for a better community. And we can’t do it without you.
Joining is easy: just click here to go to our secure donations page.
2. We’re people-powered journalism. Over the past year, we have published hundreds of stories by citizen journalists, and brought the voices and issues of neighborhood, ethnic and immigrant communities to a larger audience. Our editors and instructors have spent hundreds of hours teaching members of our community to use media tools to tell their own stories.
3. We reflect the tremendous diversity of our community. Where else can you find writers as diverse as Daniel Cubias, Sheila Regan, Scott Russell, Dwight Hobbes, Nekessa Opoti, Nelima Kerré, Wameng Moua and Ahmed Tharwat—and news stories from the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Mshale, Asian Pages, Hmong Today and the Minnesota Women’s Press—all under one masthead?
4. Never miss another Daily Planet Happy Hour. Sign up as a member and you’ll be notified of all of our upcoming events, including our Daily Planet Happy Hours, our Brown Bag Lunch With a Journalist series and our Fall Media Forum (November 7.)
5. Get a Daily Planet tote bag, save the planet. No more plastic, no more paper. It’s just one of the exciting premiums that come with Daily Planet membership.
6. Our outstanding arts coverage. We cover the big events—like Art-a-Whirl and the Guthrie’s Tony Kushner celebration—but we also provide invaluable coverage of the ethnic and community arts events that you may not read about in the mainstream media. Our award-winning Arts Orbit blog brings the best of the blogosphere straight to your inbox, and our weekly arts newsletter helps you find the best events for every single day of the year.
7. Our Brown Bag Lunch With A Journalist series. Your chance to get up close and personal with top Twin Cities’ top newsmakers. Featured guests have included Eric Black, Robyne Robinson, Steve Brandt and Julio Ojeda-Zapata.
8. We make your tax-deductible gift go a very long way. On our shoestring budget, every year we manage to cover hundreds of stories that are ignored or under-reported by the major local media outlets. And remember: Even a small gift helps us leverage grants from foundations, by demonstrating community support.
9. You would look stunning in a Daily Planet t-shirt. (We’ll contact you about size and cut.)
10. Our award-winning journalism. Here’s what the Minnesota Society of Journalists said about the Daily Planet when they gave us a 2009 Page One award for Best Independent News Web Site – for the second year in a row:
“The breadth and depth of this site is terrific. It connects on multiple fronts: reader engagement, neighborhood coverage, local opinions, 24/7 updates and a strong commitment to a diversity of voices. tcdailyplanet.net really taps the power of the medium to make the community part of the conversation – a lesson some of its competitors could benefit from.”
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