Newsbf an obligation to neighbors
October 22, 2013
By Publisher Mike Weland

Since offering this website for sale after my wife and I decided to move to Alaska to be able to spend the years we have left enjoying our grandchildren, I've come to realize I may have asked too much, and told too little.

Keeping this site updated and trusted seems easy to me; reporting news and information of importance to my neighbors is what I love to do, and I do it without thought for recompense.

More than 18,000 hits a day, from around the globe, tell me that my efforts are worthwhile and appreciated.

Back in the day, a town crier was hired to walk the streets and shout news. I'd have fit right in.

Then came the printing press and newspapers, which weren't really timely, but by which news could be told with a little depth.

From an early age, newspaper publishers recognized that businesses which could be frequented by their readers might benefit were they able to tell readers what they offered, and advertising was born.

Advertisers helped spread the word of the American Revolution at the local level, right along with helping tell of neighbors born, graduated, married or died. Grandma, living miles away, could clip it out and treasure it forever.

Then radio came along, and local news gained immediacy; in a moment from notification, an isolated DJ could break into local programming and warn listeners of an approaching storm; an impending disaster. Radio could and did save lives, but the news was fleeting.

My days at KBFI are among my proudest.

Alas, with all the advances in technology came higher costs to present the news, a need to either charge advertisers more or gain a wider audience of readers.

Media stopped treating local news as news, but started treating it as advertising, To get local news published; a birth, a death, a community bake sale, you have to pay.

After more than 20 years in the news business, newsbf.com stands poised to break the mold, and I'm only waiting for advertisers to climb aboard.

With the internet, cell phones, Facebook and email, I can reach readers via newsbf.com with news of importance in time to make a difference. My reporting, done accurately, can save lives. It can tell friends of a happy family's event, it can reunite a bereft owner with her missing dog.

I do it because it's what I do.

I don't sell ads myself, though I very much appreciate those who advertise ... I worry of the potential that my news might be swayed.

Since offering this site for sale, I've had three inquiries; two of whom questioned ad potential and a third who backed out because she worried that she couldn't be fair in covering local news.

I'd all but give this site away to someone who would, because my friends and neighbors need and deserve a free, accurate and timely source of news, 24-7.

Newsbf isn't a business, it's a calling. I sincerely need advertisers, not only to make my wife happy, but to pay for the talented people creating the graphics and to hire more help to bring my readers news they can trust, in time to matter.

It can make money, but money, I pray will never stand in the way of giving you news when it matters most.

I pray someone shares the trust.