Globe spreading the news with ‘Friends’ scheme
By Assistant Editor Connor Steel
THE Gosport & Fareham Globe is delighted to announce a new fundraising initiative enabling readers to help run their local newspaper and get additional benefits in return for a small fee.
Entitled ‘Friends of the Globe’, the project will begin on Sunday, October 23 and its main purpose is to provide subscribers with direct links to breaking or updated stories from our website.
These will be sent directly to email inboxes every week, costing just £1 per calendar month or a discounted single payment of £10 per annum. This will be completed by the editorial team and sent to everybody on the mailing list using a new, purpose-built Mailchimp database account.
So why else should you become a Friend? Not only will you receive links to your inbox and help your popular newspaper flourish after the Covid-19 pandemic, subscribers will also be able to provide feedback to our editorial team on a regular basis. There will be access to a regular forum at which opinions – both constructive and critical – can be aired and, where appropriate, acted on.
Globe founder and editor Robin Young said: “No thanks to the Government and the subsidies it provided for larger and wealthier news organisations, we have weathered the worst of the pandemic.
“But although we have closed down our Bury House office and are working from home, there are still some overheads to be covered. The prospect of us generating a sutainable income from advertising in the present financial climate is remote, so it is hoped that a small cash buffer can be created if some supporters decide to help out by joining the Friends of the Globe scheme.
“Non-members will still be able to read their local newspaper free of charge and the long-term goal to publish regular supplements and a printed Globe edition – hopefully creating paid jobs in the process – remains unchanged.”
Interested readers are requested to transfer either £1 every month or a single payment of £10 into the Globe account. It is held at the Santander bank – account name My Free News Ltd T/A The Gosport Globe; sort code 09-01-29; account number 23768530.
Once paid, any subscribers are then asked to email me, Assistant Editor Connor Steel, on steel.connor@live.co.uk, with the subject ‘Your Name’ – FOTG. I will add your name and email address to our Mailchimp folder, allowing us to send links directly to your inbox.
By doing this readers are giving permission for their name and email address to be saved onto the secure Mailchimp system, which is data protected and only available to the editor when sending out the links. If they change their mind, subscribers can request that their information be removed from the system at any point.
For any further information, please contact our main email address – editorial@thegosportglobe.co.uk. The editor promises to answer queries as soon as possible. We also ask readers to spread the word about our new scheme because, as the old chiche has it, every little helps. This can be done through our social media channels or by word of mouth.
Readers can download a shareable version of the ‘Friends of the Globe’ logo by clicking here.
