BY TERI FINNEMAN
The past few months have been a learning experience of pouring the foundation to a house while living in it at the same time.
While the Eudora Times reporting team has been getting to know the community and writing stories for our website, I have been involved with behind-the-scenes discussions about the future of our enterprise.
We think we have some good news for you as a result.
Our initial fundraising goal exceeded our expectations thanks to the community’s support. This has provided us with some seed money to be able to grow and see what the next stage of this endeavor may be.
Here’s what we see right now moving forward:
Riley and Lucie will continue writing stories for the next few weeks as they have been. However, The Eudora Times will then “go dark” for much of December and January, meaning you will see little, if any, new content from us during this time.
That’s because we plan to use that time to transfer to a new “home” – a home we hope will give us the stability we need and allow us to grow more quickly.
I will be transferring “ownership” of The Eudora Times over to the Jayhawk Media Group, the entity that includes the KU student newspaper, the Kansan. Here’s why.
By becoming a product of the Jayhawk Media Group, The Eudora Times will immediately have access to critical tools for us to grow: accounting systems, website systems and – what I know many of you want most – access to a printing press that could allow us to have a printed product in the future.
The goal is to spend our semester break during December and January transferring content from our current website into a brand new one that will look much more professional and have much greater capabilities. We hope to hire an advertising representative to work with Eudora businesses to start advertising in our newspaper as well.
To be clear, these are our goals for the next few months. Right now, we’re operating on short-term goals to see if we can indeed make this a long-term endeavor. Like any other small business, there aren’t any guarantees, but we’re doing all we can to be successful.
Your continued support is going to be critical for The Eudora Times to remain into the future since moving into the Jayhawk Media Group is going to require – on an annual basis – 10 times the financial resources of our initial $1,400 seed money.
We are so appreciative of everyone who donated to our initial campaign to get us going. Now, it’s critical we receive broader and ongoing support from the community.
Therefore, even though our initial fundraising shows it’s completed, we are still taking donations at https://tinyurl.com/y4u7stxj to help us continue to pay for reporters and infrastructure as we move into this next phase of providing news to Eudora.
This brings me to the next bit of news: In January, I will be stepping down as editor of The Eudora Times as a result of this transition.
This will indeed be a big change, but also isn’t as dramatic as it may sound. After all, The Eudora Times operations will simply be moving down one floor from my office.
I will instead shift into a new role with two main functions. The first is to provide adviser support to the team of journalism students who will take control of running the news coverage of The Eudora Times. Riley, Lucie and Page will be part of that team and will be aiding with the transition.
My other role will be continuing to work on the business model, structure, staffing and revenue side of The Eudora Times to keep building the bones it needs. In other words, I will take on more of a big picture role with The Eudora Times instead of running daily news operations.
We thank you for the support that has gotten us to this point and look forward to continuing to grow with you in the future as we venture into this exciting new model of community journalism.