Nothing makes you appreciate something more than having it taken away.

I’ve been in D.C. for a year now, but Tennessee is still home. Every morning, I still scan my Google Reader for TN political news, Nashville happenings and what my former clients are up to. Over this past year, I subscribed to just about every major political blog in the state, but I truly relied on SouthComm’s A.C. Kleinheider.

Not only could I spell his name without looking it up, I trusted he’d serve up the odd, timely and important things I actually needed to know–24-7. I’d wake up on Sunday morning to at least ten new posts of political whatnot that had come to light in the middle of the night. It was magical.

But then, SouthComm sACKed him. (Don’t even get me started on what a strategically poor idea that was.) His former site, Nashville’s Post Politics,  is still up and doing fine, but the person I assumed would always be there to keep me up-to-speed is “taking a break” and I’m left desperately trying to fill my TN politics/odd stuff void.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been speed-dating with various blogs. I’m getting by. But am all scared to get attached to these folks again.

What if they go away?

To prevent this informational tragedy, I’ve decided I’m going to start doing my small part to be sure the people I rely on to get my news stay employed.

Today, I gave $25 to TNreport.com (I just recently discovered them and I like their multimedia and reporting style). Then, I surfed over and gave $35 to my “local” National Public Radio affiliate, WPLN Nashville Public Radio (I listen to it online).

I take from these and other sources, but I don’t give back. I don’t work for free. Why should I expect journalists to work for free? And last time I didn’t give back, my lifeline to TN politics got laid off. If you use non-profit or volunteer journalism–and they are smart enough to ask you for money–give back.

We’re not talking paid subscriptions here–though I’m not at all opposed to them–we’re talking making donations to keep the lights on. Tiny ones, but still, now I can sleep better knowing this time I tried.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Share
This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.