EDITOR’S NOTE: As the invitation to our Pioneer Party said – “We couldn’t do this without all of you.” I’m especially proud of our team here at the Pioneer. When I came onboard after the untimely passing of founder Leeann Neal, I felt the weight of her legacy as well as the community’s need for the Pioneer, but it was pretty much only me. Soon I brought on other writers, and it’s just continued to organically grow from there.
AND – we couldn’t do without you, dear readers. Thank you so much for reading, we really appreciate it. We are committed to “no paywall” and the news for free, but honestly, we (myself, Laura Swanson the editor, and my partner and founder, Kelly Benson don’t take a salary from the Pioneer. We pay our contributors – those that will take payment, and the costs of the technology and more. So, if you find value in the Pioneer, we would be most grateful for the donation to support keeping the news free to read for another decade or more. You can contribute here: https://www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/contribute/
We’ve got some exciting things in the works, too. Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Be sure to check out the video collection there.
And again, Thanks for reading.
By Neal Lemery
Yesterday, Sunday May 17, many of the contributors to the Pioneer gathered to celebrate the Pioneer’s thirteenth birthday, and to mark the many contributions this unique, online publication makes to informing and educating our community. We help strengthen our community bonds and serve the North Coast.
The Pioneer, with an online circulation of about one million (yes! million) views per month, and a loose-knit group of about forty contributors, is our area’s largest news media source. We live here, and share many stories of public events, accomplishments, and the diverse talents of community members. We do that in a variety of ways, the traditional news story, videos, photos, and art, broadcasting local happenings and doing in-depth investigations on often complex and important stories that matter.
While some of us have been working as journalists for many years, most of us have worked in other professions, and bring our community interests and passion for building and informing our community about important people, events, and opportunities to the Pioneer. We do this work out of love for where we live and the people we live with, the compensation being in the form of the satisfaction in community service and helping people live richer, more informed lives.
The Pioneer is not alone in being a source of reliable and timely information to rural communities. There are over 700 on-line community centered journalistic entities in the country, growing by about fifty more a year. As traditional paper-based newspapers are financially struggling, these web-based news sources are actively serving community needs with truly local information.
“There is scarcely anyone in the journalism world today who doesn’t know about the crisis in journalism. Starting with the implosion of the traditional business model for news brought on by digital and social media, today’s crisis is both a crisis of capacity and a crisis of relevance and trust, as peoples’ news habits and attitudes are profoundly shifting. Newsrooms need deeper and more sustainable funding models in order to have the capacity to provide quality news to their communities. But we also need to find ways to reformulate the news to build trust and better meet communities’ information needs. That means focusing on journalistic practices that show promise of making high-quality news more relevant, inclusive, and trusted.” https://agorajournalism.center/research/advancing-community-centered-journalism/
That public trust is earned, and I consider the role of a contributing writer as a sacred duty and honor. I’ve joined the national Society of Professional Journalists and have pledged to uphold their code of ethics, in order to strengthen my belief in the vital role of this work, and to better serve the community. In this work, there is much to learn and to respect.
Our tireless editor, Laura Swanson, sometimes suggests story ideas, and will gently prod us to connect with interesting people who have a much-needed story to tell. Yet, I relish the freedom of having my own sense of what story might be newsworthy, and important to the Pioneer readership. It is a privilege to dig into what often turns into an informative story, teaching me and our readership more of the richness of our neighbors. I’m often pleasantly surprised to have people connect with me to comment about my writing, and also share with me the importance of the Pioneer in keeping them up to date and connected to the community.
The wealth and breadth of what other contributors submit often astounds me on the level of rich and satisfying stories that need to be told in our communities. The stories are important, informative, and make living on the Oregon coast a more satisfying and rewarding adventure. We have a great deal to be proud of as a rich and diverse part of the world.
The Pioneer is now a well-established news source and embodiment of our cultural life. Our lives and our communities are stronger for its presence, and its continuing mission to better our community and keep us all informed about our neighbors and our world. Without the Pioneer, many of these stories would not be told.
Books: NEW book – Recharging Ourselves, Building Community: Rural Voices for Hope and Change; Finding My Muse on Main Street, Homegrown Tomatoes, and Mentoring Boys to Men
