A letter to McPherson

Dear McPherson,

citizen journal started with one purpose: to bring free civic journalism to Kansas. We’ve seen the decimation of local news not just within the state, but nationally, and we wanted to do something about it.

We started with McPherson because our founder, Greg, grew up here. We believe in this town and the power of rural America. citizen journal, even as we’ve grown to 20+ cities around the country, has always been proud to call McPherson home.

One year on, we’ve grown a small, passionate community who wants to see this company succeed just as much as we do. Our advertisers, small businesses just like us, have put their trust in us to deliver their message. This town has rallied around us – and for that, we are forever thankful.

Today, we’re announcing the next stage of our company – cj+. It’s a premium tier of citizen journal, dedicated to in-depth, original journalism, high school sports coverage, and more.

While we’re in the early stages of this project, those of you who subscribe to this service get everything for $5 a month or $50 a year, forever. Your price will never go up. We call it our Founders Club.

We expect to raise the price of cj+ once more features and products are implemented. But for those of you who believe in us early and help to make this happen, we want to reward you.

One thing we want to make clear: Our free civic journalism isn’t going anywhere. We believe that civic information, especially information about what’s happening right in your backyard, should always be free. The stakes of what is happening here are too high to paywall critical articles, especially in an election year.

We hope we can count on your support once again. If you’re ready to subscribe, you can do so at https://citizenjournal.us/subscribe. The Founders Club will only be open until August, and once signups are closed, it’s closed.

Thank you, McPherson.

-Greg, Max, and Matthew