AlterNet Audience Breaks Funding Records, Again: Continues to Buck the Trend

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted November 11, 2009.

It is very trendy these days for experts to write about how readers don't care where they get their information and have far less loyalty to the sources of their content.

I don't think that is true, and AlterNet's readers prove me right, time after time.

What is true is that more and more people are sending their friends and colleagues articles, posting URLs to Facebook and Twitter, and their friends trust that information more than what they find in corporate media.

But where that information comes from is very important to the senders. They want their friends to get the best information. They care about strong, independent journalism they can trust.

We know you care, because you just broke our fall fundraising record, just like last year, when you broke our "end-of-the-year" giving record. And this is during a time when people have less money, and the jobless rate is atrociously high. All of us at AlterNet thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Over the past few weeks 1,594 donors gave AlterNet more than $63,000, $20,000 over our goal. In addition to supporting our existing staff and work, we can now move forward to more deeply develop our coverage of other essential issues, including food politics -- organic, factory farms, raw milk, corporate-planned food addictions, vegetarianism, local growing and free-range meat, and tons more.

Newspapers are failing; corporate media repeat hysterical disinformation as news; government-hating, right-wing ideologue Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and much more. None of these sources are dependable.

What is dependable is AlterNet and its partners: TruthDig, The Nation, Mother Jones, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Huffington Post Investigative Fund, Think Progress, Feministe, Campaign for America's Future, and many more.

We have four short, intense fundraising campaigns a year. It helps us survive and thrive. We'll have another as we close the year, so if you missed this one, fear not, we'll be back. Or if you are so moved, go here to donate.

See more stories tagged with: media, alternet, fundraising, donors

Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.

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