Dear CounterPunchers,
We are just 1/4 away from reaching our modest fund drive goal. For those of you that already have donated, we thank you greatly. Without your support and generosity, CounterPunch would cease to exist. We know for many more of you, you rely on CounterPunch but don’t have the means to support us financially. We understand and appreciate your continued readership. But for those that have not yet donated, but read CounterPunch often, we hope you will consider donating. Our operational expenses are growing faster than we can keep up with.
No amount is too small. Your donations allow us to run the site free of sponsors, ads or clickbait. We believe this enhances your experience on our site. CounterPunch is truly independent media. Let’s keep it that way.
During the fund drive, we get loads of feedback from our readers and our haters (who still peruse our pages). Some of you tell us about your reading habits; others offer congratulations and thanks. Some send us wishlists – both editorial and operational. CounterPunchers are a diverse bunch and we appreciate the feedback. Still, we get as many complaints that our fund drive is “annoying”– we’re called all sorts of nasty shit (we can take it) and told that the fund drive is off-putting and worse, while some tell us they’ll never read CounterPunch again because we’re trying to “force” them to donate. The fund drive can seem interminable – we think so, too! We do apologize for this, but we have no other choice.
You take refuge in CounterPunch for a reason. We are unlike any publication on the left, anywhere. We aim to piss you off and make you laugh, all the while informing you about the issues few others are covering. We have created a home that fosters debate, whether it’s on Syria, Donnie Trump or Bernie Sanders. Our writers (and editors!) don’t always agree with one another, but that’s what makes us a special forum. We aren’t predictable like so many of our friendly competitors.
We do not enjoy putting out our begging bowl. We wish we would have won that big lotto pot and could put together CounterPunch simply because of our dedication to the cause. The reality is, it costs us a lot of money to keep the ship afloat. Bandwidth isn’t free and with 2 million readers a month, the cost of running the site keeps growing exponentially. Like all of you, we have bills to pay. We’re not getting rich off of this, we’re getting by and times are still very tough. This is an even greater reason to tell you how much we appreciate your contributions and support. And thank you to those who’ve graciously tolerated our ongoing pleas. We promise to put a stop to them once we reach our goal.
For those of you who donated early and had to endure the remainder of the fund drive while waiting for your comrades to pitch in, we apologize for any inconvenience. But it’s better than dealing with annoying pop-up ads every time you come to our site, isn’t it? We think so, anyway.
Once we wrap this thing up and return to normal, we promise to keep doing what we do best at CounterPunch: publishing in-depth reporting and commentary in our magazine, books (speaking of which, have you picked up our new one, Big Heat: Earth on the Brink?) and on our website to help our readers make an informed assessment of the vital issues of the day.
Thanks again for your patience and support.
Onwards,
Joshua Frank
CounterPunch Managing Editor
Donate online, call us at 1(707) 629-3683 or mail us a check to:
CounterPunch PO Box 228 Petrolia, CA 95558