Dear friends of WND,
Those on our News Alert subscriber list have heard from me daily for the last few weeks, updating them on our efforts to pull out of a severe financial crisis that has gripped WND due in large part to the predatory practices of what I call the “Digital Cartel” – chiefly Google and Facebook – who have managed to all but destroy digital advertising for independent news organizations like WND.
As a result, I launched a fund-raising campaign to raise $200,000 by March 1 to bail out WND while we re-invent ourselves and our revenue model in an age when the giants of the Internet – from Google and Facebook to Amazon and Twitter – have dramatically changed the online world to squeeze out organizations like WND. I’m glad to say we’re almost there – ever-so-close to our March 1 goal of $200,000. All we need in the next three days is another $36,000.
However, possibly some readers are skeptical. Perhaps they think I’m exaggerating the threat posed to the nation’s independent media by Google and Facebook.
Well, consider that none other than CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, has now publicly confirmed – to the letter – everything I’ve been saying for weeks.
In a speech he gave Monday in Barcelona, the CNN chief urged U.S. government authorities to pay closer attention to the raw power wielded by Google and Facebook, who together are making it all but impossible for news organizations to “survive.” That’s right – he said that.
“In a Google and Facebook world, monetization of digital and mobile continues to be more difficult than we would have expected or liked,” Zucker said. And without something new to support news organizations, he added, “good journalism will go away.”
Of course, the difference between WND and CNN – aside from the fact that WND is committed to real news while CNN, due to its hatred of President Trump, is daily drowning in the fake variety – is that CNN is owned by super-wealthy Time Warner and has tremendous resources to float it even as the Digital Cartel dries up its advertising. WND has no such resources, no big corporate backers and no billionaire “sugar daddies.” WND has always earned its own way.
Still, Zucker is accurate in bemoaning the fact that, “nobody for some reason is looking at these monopolies that are Google and Facebook. That’s where the government should be looking, and helping to make sure everyone else survives. I think that’s probably the biggest issue facing the growth of journalism in the years ahead.”
Repeat: Even the head of CNN now concedes that the anti-competitive practices of the Digital Cartel are “the biggest issue facing the growth of journalism in the years ahead.”
As for WND, I’ve made my case for all of my colleagues in the alternative, independent, non-fake news business that the Digital Cabal is proactively out to get us.
In response, you have responded very generously, for which all of us at WND are unendingly grateful. For those who haven’t yet participated, please join in now – even if it’s just $3. Better yet, how about a $3 per month voluntary payment? Do you realize how WND’s entire annual budget could be met if only one-fifth of our subscribers gave just $3 a month? We could do without advertising. We could do without book sales. We could do without our e-commerce sales. What an amazing freedom that would mean!
That’s a measure of how much your support means to us.
Think about it.
Instead, right now we have to contend with Google and Facebook and Twitter and Amazon and the rest of the Digital Cartel. We’re literally at their mercy – their changing rules designed to keep us on an uneven playing field.
Anyway, if you haven’t contributed at least $3, preferably as a repeat monthly transaction, I urge you to do so today. If you value the independent media, especially the unique role of WND, the largest Christian content website in the world, and its role in saving this country, that’s all it would take. I mean that. Many of you have done much more, and I cannot adequately express my gratitude for all the large, one-time contributions as well as the “voluntary subscriptions” tied to your credit cards. It means so much to us.
Nevertheless, we have had to implement painful pay cuts, and have had to let go of some really good people at WND – and we would like to bring them back. In fact, we’d like to train and hire even more in the future. And I hope to have some good news to announce to you in March about those plans. But, right now, we still have to meet our immediate goal.
We’re ever so close. We still need your prayers. We still need your generous support to go over the top. We’ve got to reach just about $36,000 in three days. It would be great to finish strong – even exceed our target.
Here are several ways you can help us get there:
1. Would you consider making a monthly contribution to help our efforts – even if it’s just $3 or $5? If only a few thousand committed to doing this, we could turn off the urgent fundraising email-a-thon and focus our full attention on what you expect from us – the best content online, in print, in books and in movies. Hundreds have already responded and we are so appreciative.
2. We also need and welcome one-time donations of anywhere from $3 to $5,000. Contributions of $25, $50 or $100 make up the bulk of the gifts we’ve received in recent weeks – probably 90 percent! Besides donating online, you can also donate by calling our customer service department at 1-800-4-WND-COM or mailing your donation to WND, P.O Box 1627, Medford, OR 97501. Words cannot even express the gratitude we feel for those. I just want to give everyone a hug for those, but you’ve got to be careful about expressions like that these days.
3. One of the ways the Digital Cartel has attacked us and the rest of the independent media is by drying up advertising revenues. While anti-Christian and so-called “progressive” activists launch boycotts and other attacks, Google, Facebook and the Silicon Valley vampires use their monopoly power to strangle the voices of liberty and God’s love and sovereignty. So here’s a way you can counter them. Years ago, we noticed many people asking for an advertising-free version of WND supported by subscribers. We created one. It’s called WND Weekly. We offer a small annual subscription for this digital weekly magazine that contains nearly all the original content we produce daily and we deliver it to your inbox Sunday – repackaged with attractive illustrations, images and graphics – kind of like the old-fashioned Sunday paper delivered to your door. We provide that service for only $3.99 a month or for an annual price of $29.99. You can even sample it for free to see if it’s for you.
4. Have you checked out our online WND Superstore recently? This was once WND’s No. 1 source of revenue – for years! But because of the “Amazonization” of our culture, fewer people think of any other place to go for their books, Bibles, movies, gifts, preparedness needs and even unique products not carried at Amazon! Check out the handy links above to introduce you to the WND Superstore – or to re-introduce you to it.
5. If you don’t already subscribe to our monthly Whistleblower magazine – available in both print and digital versions – you don’t know what you’re missing. Unlike any newsmagazine you’ve ever seen, every issue of Whistleblower is an incredible journey into one single topic of tremendous importance to you – a topic that, as a rule, is either ignored or twisted beyond recognition by the rest of the media. Whistleblower connects the dots and illuminates where today’s events are headed, what they really mean, and what they portend for readers. It’s a must-read.
6. Lastly, for individuals, companies and foundations willing to make contributions larger than $5,000, you can mail those to us at WND, P.O. Box 1627, Medford, Oregon 97501. I urge you to send me an email at [email protected] and I’d be happy to discuss it with you personally. You can also call one of our customer service representatives (1-800-4-WND-COM or 1-800-496-3266) with your phone number and I will get back to you personally. We even have affiliated non-profit institutions we can tell you about that can ensure your targeted project-oriented contribution is tax-deductible. Would you like to sponsor more hard-hitting investigative reporting into corruption, fraud, waste and abuse in government? We can do it. Would you like to support the marketing effort of one of our books or movies? We can do that, too. If there’s something you’d like WND to do, it can likely be arranged.
Thank you once again for your understanding and prayers, your many expressions of love, your encouragement and your financial sacrifices. Let’s fight the good fight together!
And may God bless you all.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
WND.com, WND Books, WND Films
