Happy Monday! Megan here.

Cool thing: Four years ago today, I sent out the very first edition of Sioux Falls Simplified.

So, today, I'm celebrating and reflecting – but I'm also looking to the future and what it'll take to keep this little-news-outlet-that-could around for another four (or even 40) years.

Big wins so far:

  • More than 1,500 stories published,
  • Serving 5,000 weekly email subscribers,
  • Produced an award-winning Simplified Welcome Guide,
  • Provided thousands of dollars in in-kind sponsored content for area nonprofits,
  • Raised $5,000 for Journey of Hope in our inaugural "A Little Help" campaign (more to come soon on who this year's beneficiary will be!)
  • Worked with exclusively Sioux Falls area-based businesses in advertising partnerships.

Big goals for this year:

Certainly I have business goals to reach more people and sell more ads to keep working toward financial sustainability.

But really, more importantly, my primary goal this year is to improve the civic health of Sioux Falls.

  • Civic health relates to how people participate in their community – more specifically the degree to which they have access to information and the ability to take action through things like voting, volunteering, and working together to solve community problems.

That, to me, looks like ensuring everyone has access to information about how Sioux Falls' various government entities work, ways the average citizen can participate in local democracy and grassroots organizing, and just general knowledge of what's happening in our community.

How – and why – to help:

It's no secret the news industry is ... we'll say, complicated. No one has really "hacked" the local news business model, and, while I'm personally happy to say I'm still here four years later, the truth is things run pretty darn lean over here.

The thing is, Sioux Falls Simplified isn't a cog in some big corporate machine. We don't have a national nonprofit backing us.

  • We also don't restrict who can read our content by hiding it behind paywalls. That goes back to the whole "civic health" and "wanting to live in a community where people have equitable access to information that can help them shape the world they want to live in" thing.
    • Adding, as always, the caveat that free-to-read local news is NOT free to produce.

It's really just you. You're what makes this news outlet possible.

So, is it worth $15/month to surround yourself with people who are working to make the community better? Is it worth $5?
Buy in to a smarter Sioux Falls today

And, hey, I understand the monthly/annual commitment can be daunting. If you just want to say, "I like what you're doing, keep doing it," you can also make a one-time contribution to Sioux Falls Simplified.

To those who are already buying in, THANK YOU. Seriously, I couldn't do it without you.

And, regardless, I'm glad you're here. It's cool that you support local news.

All the best,

Megan