Compassion, Madera, and the Tribune
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune The Madera Tribune’s treasurer, Nancy Simpson, shown with the donation jar for the American Red Cross Creek Fire charity.
I have known for many years that Madera is a great place to live. I have lived in this town for close to 30 years, and I have no plans to live anywhere else. The people here are friendly and kind, and I know they care about each other and their community. In general, Maderans love and support our law enforcement and first responders, and our City of Madera Police Department has proven that they love and support this community.
In the Saturday, Sept.12, 2020 edition of The Madera Tribune, we announced that we wanted to help the victims of the Creek Fire by accepting donations for the American Red Cross. We made an offer to give a one-year subscription to The Madera Tribune for anyone who donates at least $25 to the American Red Cross.
I know of a few folks who said we were nuts to offer these free subscriptions in exchange for donations that would never touch our books. Sending out these free newspapers means we have to pay the postage and handling, and if the people pay on a credit card, we then have to pay out the donation money AND pay the credit card fees. Additionally, we offered to give these subscriptions for folks who live outside Madera County, which meant a huge postage bill for each one of those papers. Nevertheless, we wanted to help, and we found a way to help raise funds for our neighbors who were victims of a horrible fire.
For our little newspaper, the response to help was overwhelming. As of today, we have received $3,002 in donations. We are thankful for our community, whichhas compassion for others. As for the cost picked up by The Madera Tribune, we are hoping that the generous folks who donated to such a good cause will also continue to support our newspaper.
We have many faithful readers, and because these readers care about our paper, many have also had comments about the price of our paper. How can we publish a paper at such a low price? So, I will take this time to comment on our price. For the past 25 years, The Madera Tribune has sold to its readers at 50 cents a copy in the racks. We publish twice a week, and the annual price of a subscription in Madera County is $49. (Figure it out. We publish 104 times a year, and for an annual subscription, the subscriber pays 48 cents each, delivered in the mail.) For outside Madera County, the price of an annual subscription is $115, because the postage is more than double what it is for our own county.
I love the nostalgia of having a community newspaper that sells for only 50 cents a copy. However, I am sad to say that at the beginning of the year 2021, the subscription prices will go up. The final new prices are not finalized, but we realized that we can no longer circulate The Madera Tribune at such a low price. As I mentioned earlier, it has been 25 years since we increased the price of an edition of the paper. On April 20, 1995, we increased the price from 35 cents to 50 cents.
So, I encourage you to take advantage of the $25 donation with a free one-year subscription. This offer is good only through Sept. 30 at 5 p.m. If at 5:01 p.m. on that day, we receive a call to donate and get a free subscription, we will not accept it. (Sorry.)
If you miss the donation offer, you have until noon on Thursday, Dec. 31 (New Year’s Eve) to get your subscription at the current price. (Please don’t call us that afternoon, as many of our Tribune staff will want to leave early and celebrate New Year’s Eve.)
Thank you again for your kindness in supporting The Madera Tribune and its drive to help the fire victims. Right now we have raised just over $3,000 for The American Red Cross. Help us increase that total. Our donation jar is waiting for you at the office of The Madera Tribune.
— My love to all,
Nancy
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“Keep loving each other like family. Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it.”
— Hebrews 13:1-2
