Dear readers:
While I’m happy to welcome 2021, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for all the goodness I saw in 2020.
For starters, members of our community stepped up to help others. In the midst of COVID-related layoffs and worries about how to pay the rent/mortgage/utilities and keep food on the table, our local organizations came together to provide for those in need. With support from the city council and mayor, the City of Edmonds worked tirelessly to ensure grant money was available to both residents and businesses to offset the impacts of the pandemic. The Edmonds Chamber of Commerce also stepped up to assist by coordinating business-to-business grants. Nonprofit organizations like the Edmonds Food Bank and the Edmonds Waterfront (Senior) Center figured out how to maintain social distancing — providing drive-thru and delivery options for those in need. To address the isolation caused by the pandemic, volunteers also made calls to local seniors, to check on their wellbeing. When the Edmonds School District shifted to remote learning, the district developed a robust food pickup and delivery plan to ensure that students who normally rely on school meals didn’t go hungry.
I am proud that My Edmonds News — along with our sister publications Lynnwood Today and MLTnews — also expanded our efforts to address the crisis. Our writers worked tirelessly to report on the scale and impact of the pandemic. You turned to My Edmonds News for the news you needed to navigate the situation. And you still do.
But we are not a single-issue publication. We bring you many different stories every day – about the continuing impact of the virus on business and cultural life, about the indomitable spirit of your neighbors, decisions made at city meetings, letters, reviews, obituaries, business, and stories about people who make a difference here.
We are your hometown publication. We are locally owned and run. We care about the interests and concerns of our community. Our writers and photographers live here. And we welcome your participation in My Edmonds News, by submitting comments, letters, photos, articles and opinion pieces.
Local news has always been important — but never more than now. And My Edmonds News is a primary source of independent local news in Edmonds.
The truth of the matter is: We need your help to keep doing what we do.
At a time when demand for My Edmonds News has never been higher, advertising revenue has dropped due to the economic downturn. We are asking you, our readers, to support our work.
Over the last few months, hundreds of readers have stepped up so that My Edmonds News can continue to provide the local news the community relies on. Will you join them?
Click here to see our different membership levels. And, when you read My Edmonds News, think how good you’ll feel knowing you help make it possible.
And, thank you.
Teresa Wippel, Publisher
P.S. I am also grateful that I had an opportunity in 2020 to deliver at TEDX talk on the importance of readers and journalists working together to ensure the sustainability of journalism. Here it is, for those who haven’t yet watched it:
Thank you, for a good honest on-line paper and honest and unbiased news reporting. Happy New Year!
Well done, Teresa…
I don’t know if there is a Pulitzer Prize for local online journalism, but if there is, you and your writers deserve one. We hear the terms honest and unbiased in reporting, but seldom see it. You are truly honest and unbiased. Thank you.
Dear Teresa,
I like what Steven Laird said, he put it well.
I want to add my appreciation for you not only as publisher of My Edmonds News, but for keeping the words of your readers in replies as a forum for the locals to respond to the important issues of our city and times.
You always present us with the best of journalism not matter how hairy the subject might be.
This has been a bonanza year end for My Edmonds News with smoking computer keyboards engaged in the police chief debacle, you had voices heard and opinions shared by experts and simply local citizens who want the very best for our community. Thank you Teresa, for being there, for doing this no matter what!
I wish you a very healthy and happy new year. My donation will be only a drop in the bucket of what is needed, but enough drops will fill the bucket!
Ingrid Wolsk
We appreciate what you do for Edmonds. MEN and Teresa walk a constant successful balance, bringing our communities voice to the public square for all to partake and debate. It cannot be an easy task; Teresa Wippel/Publisher does an outstanding job and deserves all the praise we can bestow upon her. One of the best ways to keep MEN in business is by subscribing/donating/sponsoring. Happy New Year!
This little unbiased local news source is a pinnacle of freedom in a world that wants to imprison us with the preconceived ideas and dogmas of powerful people. Teresa is pulling off a minor miracle here. This is not available in most of small town (or big town for that matter) U.S.A.
Most news sources now are very biased in content presented and allowed, which is a dangerous thing for a fragile Democracy. All Democracies are fragile in nature because the desire for power and domination of others is a deeply embedded human trait in many who aspire to lead us in any aspect of our lives. Sorting out the good from the bad is a never ending and exhausting process; but necessary, unless you just want to be ruled; then it’s easy but not very fulfilling for the spirit.