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First, a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s helped support the Gazette over the past few months. While I know that you get an automated thank-you email right after you make a donation, I always like to send another personalized thank-you because that’s what my mom taught me to do.
But with Mom’s passing, Tim’s appointment at U of M Hospital (all is well), me getting the flu, and all the other life-stuff over the past few months, I’m sorely behind on my thank-yous. Know that I appreciate every single contribution to help keep the Gazette going. We are a reader-supported newspaper, and we couldn’t do it without you.
Old Mission Gazette is Reader Supported.
Click Here to Keep the Gazette Going.
Also, I want to reassure all of our newsletter subscribers that your emails are safe with us. At least once or twice a week, we’ll get a request from a business owner asking if 1) our email list is for sale, and if not, 2) can they “take over” one of our email newsletters and use it solely to send out their message.
The answer to both of those questions is an emphatic NO.
First of all, we are very protective of not only our Old Mission Peninsula community, but also our readers who’ve signed up to get the weekly email newsletter. There is no way on earth we would ever hand over that information to anyone, and no way we would ever let someone take over a newsletter to broadcast their business.
Yes, it probably would be quite lucrative for us. After all, we have more than 14,000 email subscribers, and most of them live either on the Old Mission Peninsula or in the Grand Traverse region. There are lots of publications that offer up their email list in the name of cash. We are not one of those publications.
We feel very strongly about maintaining the integrity of Old Mission Gazette. If you’ve been reading the Gazette for a while, you know that my husband Tim and I grew up here in OMP farm families, and that our families go back several generations into the 1800s. The Gazette is not simply a way for us to make a living. It’s our passion, our way to let people know what’s happening on the Peninsula right now, but also tell stories about how this community evolved from when it was first settled by Native Americans centuries ago (read my Dad’s story about that here).
Tim and I want people to know the Peninsula that WE grew up on. The one where milk was delivered by a milkman, where we built forts out of hay bales in the barn, and where Bob DeVol let us pick out treats from the penny candy box under the counter at Lardie’s Store in Old Mission.
All of this is why most of our revenue is generated from you – our readers. We have a donation page where you can help keep us going. So thank you to everyone who’s contributed any amount, big or small, to keep the Gazette humming along.
We so appreciate it – not just the revenue, but the fact that you’re all in with the Gazette. Running a local newspaper is an iffy proposition these days, and every donation, every thank you, every encouraging word helps us to know that what we’re doing matters.
We also offer advertising options for local businesses, but we keep our advertiser base pretty small so that it doesn’t overwhelm our content. But we’re always open to new advertisers and seeing if we’re a good fit for each other. Click here to check out our current media kit.
And if you’d like to help support us financially, click here to do that. We accept donations via credit card, PayPal and check-in-the-mail, and we also have a recurring donation option.
Thank you! I now return you to your regularly scheduled program. 🙂

SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
Because Old Mission Gazette is a "Reader Supported Newspaper" -- meaning it exists because of your financial support -- I hope you'll consider tossing a few bucks our way if I mention your event, your business, your organization or your news item, or if you simply love reading about what's happening on the OMP. In a time when local news is becoming a thing of the past, supporting an independent community newspaper is more important now than ever. Thank you so much for your support! -Jane Boursaw, Editor/Publisher, Old Mission Gazette
To keep the Gazette going, click here to make a donation.
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