Before Christmas, I asked for help.  We’re in a tough bind here at The Albany Journal.  Time have been tough all around, but they’ve been particularly rough here, and we asked for help from our readers.  Some of you helped, and we are extremely appreciative of that.  Unfortunately, we’re not nearly where we need to be.

I’m not going to lie to you folks.  Things aren’t looking good for the Journal.  We don’t have the resources to cover news like we would ideally want, and without your help, we’re not likely to keep going until we reach that point either.  While we aren’t bleeding revenue like we were prior to going digital, we also aren’t making enough to keep the Journal going indefinitely.

Readership has been fairly solid, and we’re proud of that.  Unfortunately, that’s not enough.  Once upon a time, readership was all that mattered.  If you had the readership, advertising would follow.  Papers made their money by both charging the readership and charging advertisers.  It was a beautiful arrangement.  Unfortunately, it didn’t always work that way.

Now that we’re here, we have to try and soldier on.

Again, that’s where you come in.  There is a donation button near the top of the page, on the right hand side.  If you would be so kind as to click that button, and just donate what you feel the Journal is worth to you.  The average donation is about $7.50, which is far less than the $22 per year we used to charge for a print subscription.

I hate to beg.  Anyone who knows me, knows that writing a column like this goes against my nature.  However, I have to get past that and ask.  We need your help.  Without it, we may not have an Albany Journal for much longer.  Some of you might be fine with that.  If that’s the case, so be it.  Please feel free to stop reading at any time.

However, for the rest of you, please kick in whatever you can.  If you want to keep local media as just that, local, we need your help.  Help us fight corporate controlled media and continue to push forward into new and innovative ways.  We’re not afraid to push boundaries, but we can’t do it alone.

Tom Knighton is the Editor and Publisher of the Albany Journal.