By Kate Knowles
Dear Patchers — we wouldn’t normally do this, but the chance for a Hollywood ending is in the offing, and it would be remiss to pass it up.
Tonight, we will be celebrating one whole year of The Dispatch with some of our members. One year since I decided to walk out of a safe but unsatisfying job churning out articles — and into a risky new venture. Staff size: 1.
I really didn’t know whether it would come off. Would the inhabitants of this fine city care enough about proper local news to row in behind us? Or would I find myself hastily dumped onto the job market, trying to find someone who would pay me to write?
But things haven’t turned out that way. Because people have believed in what we’re trying to do here. People who have been bombarded with clickbait and celebrity stories by local news outlets for so long, that they have finally said: enough.
We’ve now got over 20,000 of you receiving these e-mails. That’s amazing — it means we can have such an impact with our journalism.
But the number we watch like hawks, the number that haunts our sleepless hours, is the number of you who have gone one step further and made that crucial decision: to pay us. After all, these are the ones who have made any of it possible.
And so, as we count down the hours to our big bash this evening, what — you may well ask — is that number?
992. 992 of you who have given us your backing. That’s big. Thank you.
But that number is just not quite as big as another number.
You know the one I’m talking about. The big one thousand.
Tonight, I’ll be getting up the front around 7pm to welcome everyone to the event. And it would mean the world to me if I could announce we’d got there. That, in one year, we’d managed to persuade 1,000 Brummies (loosely defined as anyone with a West Midlands connection) to get on board.
So: can you get us there?
Perhaps you signed up after reading something that really struck a chord with you, and want more of that from us. Now’s the time.
Perhaps you think Birmingham needs to get better, and want to support some people trying to help. Now’s the time.
Perhaps you’ve been meaning to get around to it for a while. Now’s the time.
I know us Brummies don’t generally buy into schmultz or fairytale endings but sometimes you have to shoot for the stars. Sometimes, dreams really can come true. So go on. That gorgeous deep green button is just there. It’s really not so hard to click it.
And if you’re already one of our backers, then now is the time to spread the word far and wide. Friends, siblings, partners, ex-partners — they all look the same in the tally. They all count towards that glorious, majestic, four-figure figure.
You have five hours.
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