There are seven main ways to get involved with The Owen News. Here is a quick breakdown on the many ways that you can support The Owen News. Our goal is to keep our content free and accessible to the community, but in order to do so, we need your support!
- Subscribe and engage with our content. The easiest way to support us is completely free right now because our subscriptions are free. But we need subscribers to get advertisements online. Sharing our content on social media (with proper attribution and a link to our website, of course) helps us boost and measure our online reach. In turn, this helps us share the return on investment to potential advertisers.
- Submit a news tip, story idea or press release. We can't be everywhere, and like a traditional newsroom, we need the community to offer us news tips, story ideas and to submit press releases that we can either do stories on or share with our readers. You can submit these at [email protected].
- Volunteer. Like any other non-profit, we need volunteers. Of course, the most obvious way to volunteer is as a correspondent, and we're prepared to provide the training on how to do this ethically and responsibly. But we also know that maybe that isn't everyone's cup of tea. We have a whole host of volunteer opportunities that don't include producing content. Some of these include fundraising, coordinating dine to donate events, writing grants, attending meetings to record it when we don't have a correspondent, reaching out to prospective donors and advertisers and even some clerical work. We promise that there is a way for everyone to lend a hand and play to your strengths.
- Attend our board meetings. We meet the first Wednesday of the month at the Owen County Public Library. Our meetings start at 6 p.m. and are open to the public. This is a great way to provide feedback, learn more about The Owen News and offer ideas to help our community news outlet to be successful.
- Donate. As a non-profit, we rely on tax-deductible donations to help fund what we do. Our average monthly expenses are about $1,000 to maintain us with all volunteers. In order to be able to cover everything in Owen County, we need to be able to hire and retain full-time staff, and we dream about being able to pay some correspondents, create a print newspaper and constantly expand our coverage. We can't do that without your support and every donation counts. We have a dedicated fund through the Owen County Community Foundation or you can drop off or mail donations to The Owen News, 114 S. Main St., Spencer, IN 47460. Please make checks out to The Owen News Project, Inc. It is our policy that all donors that give over $5,000 per year are named. If you wish to remain anonymous, the best way to give is through the community foundation.
- Sponsor or Advertise. If you have a business in Owen County, we need your support just as much as we need individual supporters. We have many ways for businesses to sponsor, donate or advertise with us. Please email us at [email protected] so we can determine what might be the best fit for your goals.
- Partner with us. We want to be an active and involved part of our community, and we look forward to partnering with the community at large. After all, that is one of the best benefits of non-profit news. To partner with us, reach out via email at [email protected].