Opinion : How a traditional newspaper (which we are not) gets its funding...

(Just in case anyone out there is still not sure about this:

We are not, no more, not, not at all, not either, in no way, not even in the slightest little bit associated with any newspapers...)

After our last column about our successful fundraising efforts, we had a note of concern about where the money would go.

I don't mind the asking, or answering of that question.

Over the past 2 years, the Karrs at Monkeytown and Closes at Vinton Today have had what we describe as as "loosey-goosey" partnership.

We have no formal agreement, (although after a couple years we are thinking maybe it's time to at least think about having one).

About two years ago, when we began Vinton Today, there was very little expense. The small (and inexpensive server) was sufficient for our daily traffic

But as we grew, we kept having days when we (and our readers) would get this message: Bandwidth exceeded.

That's techno-talk for trying to run water from a fire hydrant through a garden hose. (Don't try it; it does not work.)

Soon, it began costing more to pay for the server to provide the information and send it to thousands of people.

It also took more hours of computer programming time to tweak the site for all of the demands coming in. If something breaks down, or needs tweaked or crashes or needs a larger server, we have the best customer service, and it has been at no charge.

The donations we received early this year will help ensure that we always have a large enough server, and a large enough email system to bring you the news. It also is funding some improvements on the site. Most of them you have not noticed yet; they are things that make it easier and more efficient for us to get the photos from our cameras and the words in our head (and in the stories emailed to us) onto the web site. Speaking of cameras, the donations helped us replace our overworked point-and-shoot with a Canon Rebel. The photos of the eagles at Minne Estema and the actors of "Dancers" are two examples of photos we could not have shared without that camera.

Soon, you will see some of the improvements we are making; we hope you will be as excited when you see them as we are when we work on them.

Someone asked us if the donations would present a "bonus" to us as employees. No, but we would have bought the camera anyway, paying for it, as we did with our two laptops and two desktop computers, first camera, camera cards, batteries, charger and camera cards out of our own pockets, with some assistance from a donor and our advertisers. (Yes, we believe in Vinton Today that much.) The donations mean that the readers who helped make Vinton Today a success also helped pay for the equipment to make it better.

We debated the fund-raiser a long time among ourselves, anticipating such questions.

We finally came to this conclusion: We, as a news outlet are different from the rest because we have offered (and will continue to do so) all of our services for free. Most newspapers charge for obituaries ($65 for one paper for the family of the man whose funeral we attended in January). They charge if you want to read the news. They charge if you want to submit information about certain events (although some will place some information for free).

Newspapers charge for a subscription, and obituaries, and classified ads, and...basically everything they can charge for, they do. We do not.

Each year our local newspapers collects thousands of dollars through public notices legals that city councils, county supervisors and school boards are required by law to run in a traditional print newspaper.

The amount that the county has to pay for these notices in one year would be enough for us to live very comfortably for a whole year; it's actually more than we've ever earned in a single year.

So basically, like so many other things, the newspapers are funded in part by our tax dollars, but if you want to read one, you have to buy one.

Do the laws need changed on this? Naturally, we think so, of course. But will they ever be changed to help online news sources? We doubt it. The newspapers have lobbyists in Des Moines to make sure this doesn't happen.

The 'Youseetamee'

So, as we say in our house, when we need to explain something, we quote a line out of the movie "Speechless:" "Youseetamee" (which means "You see, Timmy..." as the parents in Lassie often said) , when we began Vinton Today, we threw caution to the wind. We have poured our hearts and souls into this project, we were fortunate to run into another couple with a vision and you are now reading Vinton Today, FREE of charge, 24/7/365.

Our coverage, we think, exceeds most other sources in the area. We recently received a thank-you from a woman who had been featured in several other papers. She pointed out that one big-city newspaper messed up the story, and thanked us for getting it right (we get that a lot). Our news staff believes that there should be some actual grunt work involved to make something worth reading.

Our main point of this column is to explain how Vinton Today works, financially, and to thank the advertisers and donors who made this incredible journey possible. We still seem to be the only on-line only newspaper in Iowa, and one of a very few in the U.S.

That way, you can get the news any time of any day, at any place, for free. You don't have to leave your home, find a parking spot, bundle up or wait for someone to bring it to your door.

If you and your business would like to join us in this venture, we'd be glad to talk to you. Simply drop us an e-mail at Vintontoday@hotmail.com...we'll take care of you!