NOLA Messenger & the future of New Orleans news

Help ensure the future of journalism in your neighborhood

Dear Reader,
By reading our work, you have been part of an experiment that is succeeding. UptownMessenger.com launched in 2010 as an idea to offer neighborhood-focused news about everything in Uptown New Orleans. As we progress into a very different media landscape in New Orleans, our core concept of bringing you up-close news from your own great neighborhoods remains just as important as ever before.

Local Stories Every Day

As we have grown over the last nine years, you’ve said “yes” to this experiment. Thousands of you visit our sites every day to get your information first. You’ve pushed us to expand our coverage into Mid-City and Gentilly, move from our living rooms to an office, build partnerships with your businesses, and write the news about you, your children, and your neighborhoods.

NOLA Messenger captures local New Orleans and what makes our communities so important. Just this week, for example, we were the first to tell you:

• The Brown’s Dairy complex in Central City is up for sale
• Developers want elderly care facility for Lindy Boggs site
• Construction began for coffee shop, retail space at the old Shell station on State and Magazine
• An invasive aquatic plant is threatening Bayou St. John again

Through our stories, we celebrate, we struggle, we remember, we learn, and we grow.

The challenge of this experiment, and most of the news industry today, is developing a lasting business model. Around the country, major newspapers continue to downsize, merge or shut down entirely. Even as we compete with fewer other local media outlets, new digital giants like Facebook and Amazon are increasingly aggressive in seeking local business.

These companies will not cover neighborhood meetings or public safety issues relevant to us, however, and we all know too well how misinformation can spread on big social sites and create public discourse. If our news coverage remains free to everyone online, how do we make money to pay staff and cover expenses?

Advertisers have always been the main part of our economic model, and we are grateful for the New Orleans businesses that support and talk to you through our sites. Please patronize them, and thank them for their support of us.

We do this work because we want to see businesses and locals succeed in New Orleans. Be part of a growing news organization that focuses on what matters to our city: community.

So, how can you as readers directly participate and financially support the work that brings you independent reports about your government, your schools, your sports, and your community?

Donate

Please invest directly in your daily news source. Donations will help create the opportunity to hire more reporters and bring you the best local news in town. Recurring donations are the best, but every bit helps us build every day.We are actively seeking to hire more experienced local journalists, and our ability to recruit them will be determined completely by your support.
Donate Today

Refer a Business

NOLA Messenger is a small local business that produces quality content daily. We know readers like you can relate, whether you own a business or patronize one near your office or home.

If you have someone in mind who would like to support us and could use the promotion, tell them about us! Send them this link and we’ll get in touch.

Buy Photos

We have compiled a deep library of photos from celebrations, festivals, restaurants, and more over the years. With our new online photo store (http://photos.nolamessenger.com) , you can buy wall prints, postcards, and more from our favorite moments in the city.

This is how supporters can help us grow along with the community. It is your way as a reader to say YES.

Your support as readers helps us continue to build a viable business that pays salaries, rent, taxes, and expenses. As a business, each Messenger site is part of the economic viability of local New Orleans. CLICK HERE to show support of your independent news and information source, your go-to place for Uptown, Mid-City, and Gentilly community news.

Thank you all for reading, and for listening.

Sincerely,
Robert Morris, Owner
Tyree C. Worthy, Publisher