It is time for us to say, “Thank you!” We started this modest effort at citizen journalism a little over two years ago. We were forced to take last year off to deal with personal and professional business matters, and just resumed active publishing in January of this year. Nonetheless, we passed the 100,000 page-view milestone several thousand page-views back.

Our daily numbers on our WordPress and Facebook platforms are way up. We had to upgrade the website this month because the additional traffic was slowing things down (especially on our end when it came to editing). Where we once were pleased with getting a hundred readers per article, we are now regularly seeing readership for major articles in the thousands.

This is all thanks to you. You stuck with us through an effort in 2018 to drive us off the Internet. You backed us up when we were getting personal threats. You waited out our dormant year until we returned. You have shared our articles and spread the word.

People are reading our work regularly even though they won’t show up on our pages for fear of retaliation in a community that too often punishes diversity instead of celebrating it. I have spoken with public officials who tell me, “I read you stuff, but don’t tell anyone. They’ll get mad.” At a restaurant, where I had met with one of our new copy editors, after my credit card was run the owners came out from the kitchen to thank us for our work with the words,”No one else is speaking up for us.”  We are getting more and more direct communications from people wanting us to write their stories–stories the Leader ignores or distorts. We wish we had more contributors so we could do a better job of stepping up to the challenge.

I want to thank our contributors so far in this adventure. They make it possible to say “we” and “us” and they have brought the very sort of diverse voices missing from our local newspapers. That was our goal from the beginning:

Brett Nunn

Mike Howard

Scott Hogenson

Sky Hardesty

Ravyn

Gene Farr

Jim McEntire

Craig Durgan

Tod Brundage

Kara Kellogg

And a new contributor, Z Cerveny, who has been documenting the sad state of Port Townsend’s streets. Her work will begin appearing next week as we sort through the mass of images she sent us.

A special note of appreciation goes to two people who had something to say, and no place to say it except here. While we prefer to publish contributors under their real names, we understand why in such a small, insular, politically unbalanced community it may be necessary to use a nome de plume to say something that needs to be said.  Thank you, therefore, to the city employee who contributed years of knowledge and experience on identifying and understanding who the homeless in our community really are. And thank you to “A Concerned Citizen of Port Townsend” who, curious about just what the Black Lives Matter organization is, took the time to do research and share the results with our readers. When she sent us her article she probably did not expect it would go viral and be read across the nation.

Last, thanks to the unseen people behind the scenes: Dynamic Graphics of Sequim, which moved us from our old BlogSpot home, designed a new website, and manages our technical matters; and our volunteer copy editors–man, do we need and appreciate your help.

We are always open to new contributions. You know your community better than the itinerant reporters who come and go quickly from The Leader. You know how to reach us.