(UN)BREAKING NEWS: NAW will keep publishing!

“The future is ahead” is a headline that made me laugh even as I wrote it. I mean, it’s a tautology–the future is, by definition, ALWAYS ahead. Duh.

But then two weeks ago we entered into a staff meeting that will go down in NAW history, and it suddenly seemed there was no future. These have been a dark and stressful two weeks.

I am happy, today, to report that the future is once again ahead! There are still many things yet to be settled, so I can’t report the details of our salvation, but I am confident that the Norwegian American Weekly will continue publishing, if not for 125 more years, at least for the foreseeable future.

We at NAW know that we’ve damaged your trust in us. What assurances can we give you that if you subscribe today we’ll still be around to deliver the last issue of that subscription? No, really, I’m asking. We all know that the future of any newspaper is uncertain.

Well, my hope is that we can take this scare as a wake-up call. We will, in the following months, be doing all we can to lower our costs and increase our revenue–without sacrificing quality, of course. We’re exploring the possibility of a crowd-funding campaign to help us build a cushion, so keep your eyes open for that.

But the most important thing for us is that you, our readers, feel confident in beginning and renewing your subscriptions. Without your support, we really CAN’T go on. If you hadn’t yet subscribed, please consider doing so now. Do you know someone who would like NAW? A subscription makes a great gift any time of year.

Okay, here ends the sales pitch. My point is–hooray!–we will survive! Thank you SO MUCH for all your support through this rough patch. Hearing from so many of you what NAW meant to you and how much you’d miss it really warmed our hearts–and has further emphasized that the work we do here is important. We intend to keep doing it for a long, long time.