Dear Manatee County, the Bradenton Herald needs your help to keep covering COVID-19 story

Extraordinary times like these, for our community and for your newspaper, require me to do something I never imagined having to do: I have to ask you, our readers, to contribute money to help us cover the story of our lifetimes.

In my almost 31 years as a newspaper journalist, almost half of that here in Bradenton, I thought I had seen and covered just about every possible kind of story. And then on the evening of Sunday, March 3, we learned that a Manatee County resident had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, one of the first two such cases in Florida.

Nothing has been the same since, for our community and for your newspaper.

Since that evening, the Bradenton Herald has “flooded the zone,” dedicating all of our news staff to covering every possible piece of the story as the pandemic’s grip extended through the community.

Where is the virus? How many people are sick?

Can I go to work tomorrow? Do I still have my job?

Can my kids go to school? Are they safe?

Where can I find a mask and hand sanitizer? Where can I get tested?

Is my favorite restaurant still open? Can I go to the beach?

Most of us working from our homes, we have dedicated almost all of our reporting and editing efforts to answering these and other questions important to you. And to holding accountable the government, medical and other officials in charge of the response to the crisis.

We, I believe, are essential to understanding what is happening in Bradenton and Manatee County because of COVID-19. Ours is a public service role, and we are proud to play it.

You, our readers, have rewarded us for our efforts. We have recorded millions of page views on Bradenton.com because of our coronavirus coverage, and we have sold many new subscriptions.

Thank you.

But we need more help.

Tough times for the Herald, other newspapers

The cold, hard economic reality is that the COVID-19 pandemic has delivered yet another shock to the local journalism business already in upheaval because of changes in technology and reader habits.

Shuttered businesses, businesses uncertain about the future, don’t advertise, and we have felt the effects. Our business model is in flux.

Up to now, however, our newsroom has been spared the cuts seen at other news organizations, like at the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune, brought by the current crisis because of the support you have shown us. Each page view and, especially each subscription, is a lifeline allowing us to keep covering the story at a level we think you have come to expect. (If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up at https://account.bradenton.com/subscribe)

Additionally, a $50,000 grant from the Manatee Community Foundation’s Bradenton COVID-19 Reponse Fund will keep our coronavirus coverage free for all readers through the summer, as well as underwrite the work of one of our reporters.

How you can help

Still, time is running short. We will not be able to maintain our current level of coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic if over the next month we are not able to raise at least $25,000. This won’t help expand our coverage, it will just help keep our current staff of seven reporters, a photojournalist and myself, on the job.

We started this effort last week, and already the response has been gratifying. There are many in this community who already have donated at givebutter.com/bradentonherald who value local news and are willing to show it. Thank you!

I know there are many others in the community who share the same sentiment, who believe a strong local newspaper is essential to Bradenton and Manatee County. I have heard from many of you about what we mean to your. Your encouragement is inspirting.

Contributions submitted via the Local Media Foundation are tax-deductible and will come to our newsroom, not McClatchy’s bottom line.

You can also send a check payable to Local Media Foundation, with Bradenton Herald in the memo area, to Bradenton Herald GiveButter, 1111 Third Ave. W., Bradenton, Fla. 34205.

If you have other ideas on how to help, please let me know.

It’s YOUR newspaper

It is not an an easy ask for me. I know many of you are suffering from lost jobs and health scares And I know many of you already subscribe. I worry that you might think this kind of plea will become a habit of mine.

Let me say this: I am the editor of the Bradenton Herald, and I love my job. It is the best job I have ever had.

But I, and the rest of the news team, are only caretakers of the newspaper. We are the latest in the long line of journalists who have covered this community for almost 98 years, and we will be succeeded, hopefully, by journalists who come to love this paper, and this community, as we have.

But it is YOUR newspaper. The stories we are telling are your stories.

This is a plea for you to invest in your newspaper, in your democracy, in your community, before it is too late.

I promise you, as the caretaker currently in charge, the payoff will be rewarding for everyone.

Marc R. Masferrer is president and editor of the Bradenton Herald and Bradenton.com.

This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 12:58 PM.