| Number 251 | April 9, 2004 |
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This Week:
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Special Spring Pledge Drive Issue!
This week’s edition of Nygaard Notes is entirely devoted to the spring edition of the twice-a-year event known as the * NYGAARD NOTES PLEDGE DRIVE! * Yes, it’s that time of year again, when I ask you to make a pledge of financial support to the independent media project you have in front of you. It happens twice a year, usually in April and October, and it’s similar to the pledge drives you hear on public radio and television, except that I don’t give out free mugs or Garrison Keillor CDs. Why do I do this? As readers well know, Nygaard Notes has no advertising, no grant money, no government assistance, and I do not charge a fee for subscriptions. In other words, the ENTIRE budget for the Notes comes from YOU, the faithful readers. Some of you have been meaning to send in your check and already know how to do it. If you are in that category, you can skip the rest of this issue (except for the last essay on the budget) if you like. Just make out your check right now to “Nygaard Notes,” and mail it to:
For the rest of you, the remainder of this issue will focus on the How, the Why, and the What. That is, How to pledge, Why you would want to, and What the heck IS Nygaard Notes, anyway? |
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Greetings, In last week’s editor’s note, I supposedly explained why “I always place [George W. Bush’s] name in parentheses.” In fact, I never place his name in parentheses. What I meant to say was “quotation marks.” And it’s not his name I put in quotation marks. It’s the word “President,” when used as the title for George W. Bush. I guess it’s fairly obvious that I write the editor’s note after everything else is done, and sometimes it’s at the end of a long day. So, the explanation was accurate, but what I was explaining was mis-stated. Kind of confusing, so I apologize, red-facedly. This week’s “Quote” of the Week speaks of the increasing “demand for the journalist as referee, watchdog, and interpreter.” I didn’t include in the QOTW a comment from the same report, which said that “While Americans are turning to more and varied sources for news, the media that they are relying on increasingly tend to be owned by a few giant conglomerates competing to cover what seem to be at any moment a handful of major stories.” In other words, most people will be using Time-Warner or CBS as their “referee, watchdog and interpreter.” This issue of Nygaard Notes attempts to make the case that you’d be better off choosing Nygaard Notes for that job. I like the referee part, in particular. (Do I get a whistle?) I think the most convincing evidence that Nygaard Notes is deserving of your financial support is to be found in the week-in, week-out journalism and writing that you find right here in these pages. Still, the Nygaard Notes Pledge Drive is the occasion for me to blow my own horn and explicitly remind you that I cannot be a referee, nor a watchdog, nor anything else of use unless YOU make your contribution to the cause. Nygaard Notes has almost no overhead, but it still takes time to do the kind of Values-Based Journalism that you find here every week. And time is money, in the sense that the lower my Nygaard Notes income is, the more time I am forced to work at my “other” jobs. In a very real sense, then, every dollar you can find it in your heart to contribute means more time that I can spend producing this unique blend of [fill in your own description here]. So, please, think about what you can afford to contribute to keep Nygaard Notes going, and send in your check (or donate online) today. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Nygaard |
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I future weeks I hope to be able to make some comments on a major new report called “The State of the News Media 2004,” put out by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a mainstream group of journalists and academics. For now, I’ll just give you a few words from their overview in that report:
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How does one participate in the Nygaard Notes Pledge Drive? It’s very simple: 1. You decide how much Nygaard Notes is worth to you. (I will give hints on how to decide in a moment) 2. If you’re not sure you want to pledge your support, you take a moment to read “Why Is Nygaard Notes Unique?” elsewhere in this issue. There will be more, equally compelling, reasons in next week’s issue. 3. You send a check to Nygaard Notes. How? See below. How To Pledge, Etc. There are two ways to make a pledge to Nygaard Notes. You could just make out a check, payable to “Nygaard Notes” and send it to the address found both at the beginning and at the end of this issue of the Notes. Or, if you’re more comfortable in cyberspace, you can pledge online, using the PayPal system. All you need is a credit card. Then you go to the Nygaard Notes website at http://www.nygaardnotes.org/. Right under “This Week’s Issue” there’s a link to take you to PayPal. I’ve never done it (not having a credit card), but I’m told it’s easy. Donations to Nygaard Notes are not tax-deductible. I do not, and will
not, ever make a “profit,” but I am not legally a “not-for-profit”
organization, in the sense of being organized as a 501(c)3 organization
like the government requires for tax-exempt status. I have some experience
with not-for-profits, and I have my reasons for Nygaard Notes not being
one. In fact, even as I type these words there is an effort underway
to get the federal government to restrict the free speech rights of
non-profit organizations. And they were already restricted. So I’m
not going there. (To learn more about the effort to gag non-profits,
go to either http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oId=14670
or http://www.nonprofitadvocacy.org/)
How Much To Donate? There are at least three different methods for determining the amount of your generous donation: Method #1: Traditional The traditional way of pledging, or subscribing, is to have someone determine what each issue is “worth.” That may involve a look at the “market,” which we’re not going to do, or you may simply ask yourself, “How much is each copy of Nygaard Notes worth to me?” I don’t care for either one of these approaches, since they both imply that the project is some sort of commodity for sale like a box of corn flakes, but the “What’s it worth” approach is one way to think about it. If this is your choice, here are some numbers: In a typical year I put out about 50 issues. If each issue is worth a dollar to you, then you could send me $50. Fifty cents each? Then it’s $25. If you would be willing to shell out one thin dime for each issue, then send a check for five bucks. You get the idea. Method #2: Income/Wealth Calculation A second way to think about this is to relate your contribution to your own income or wealth. Are you willing to devote one or two hour’s worth of your wages each year to supporting Nygaard Notes? Then send me that amount. If you make minimum wage, I am more than happy to accept $5.15 or $10.30 for your annual subscription donation. If you make closer to the average household income, then you would make an annual contribution of something like $21 to $42. Using this yardstick, the average American physician, for example, would send me $90 to $180 per year. You get this idea, too, I’m sure. In a related way, you could send one-tenth of 1% of your net worth. For the average household, this would be roughly $42. (For help in figuring out your own wealth, the median household income, etc., see Nygaard Notes #138, “Wealth in the United States.”) Method #3: Whatever Some of you may want to make up an arbitrary annual amount and send that along. Fine. Not everybody likes to formalize things like I do. The point is that I will record whatever you send and then I will contact you a year or so later and ask you to renew your pledge. (Most people do renew, but you don’t have to.) I will even send a pre-addressed and stamped envelope—what a classy operation! |
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The first question is: What IS Nygaard Notes? This seems like a simple question, at first: Nygaard Notes is a weekly newsletter about politics and culture. As my masthead says, it is “Independent Weekly News and Analysis.” And here’s my mission statement: Nygaard Notes is an independent weekly newsletter written and published by Jeff Nygaard. Nygaard Notes is concerned with a broad range of issues and ideas, using humor and plain language to reach out to anyone who believes in the values of solidarity, justice, compassion, and democracy. Nygaard Notes is intended to educate, inform, and entertain readers. Nygaard Notes is also intended to challenge its readers, inspiring them to move away from passive ways of thinking and toward more active, creative ways of thinking that lead to positive action. That’s all true enough, but it only tells a little bit about what is unique about Nygaard Notes and why it is worth supporting. So, here are a few things about Nygaard Notes that set it apart from other publications. Next week I’ll have a few more. My hope is that you will read them, agree with them, and come to believe that Nygaard Notes is worthy of your financial support. NYGAARD NOTES IS AN ORGANIZING TOOL. The combination of accurate and reliable information presented in plain language that can be read and understood by everyday people like you and me is a hallmark of Nygaard Notes. I break things down simply and clearly – in ways that you can actually use in your lives. No jargon, no “expert analysis.” A labor organizer who is a long-time reader and supporter of the Notes recently recommended Nygaard Notes to his union brothers and sisters, saying, “The talking points that can be gleaned from Nygaard Notes weekly articles and used to educate others are a must for any organizer/leader.” NYGAARD NOTES TEACHES PEOPLE HOW TO TEACH THEMSELVES. There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “Give someone a fish and they’ll eat for a day; Teach someone to fish and they’ll eat for a lifetime.” I was out in the community a few months ago and ran into an activist friend of mine. She commented that she had just read the latest issue of Nygaard Notes, which was one of my media analysis issues. Her comment was, “When I get done reading your reports on the media, I realize that I read the mainstream media in a different way. Your articles don’t just show me what’s wrong with one particular article; they show me how to read any article more critically.” This is no accident. Even though many issues of Nygaard Notes are heavily researched and backed up with loads of citations, I am not trying to bestow upon readers “the truth,” or to impress people with my knowledge on a given issue. What I am trying to do—with some success if my friend’s comment is true—is to illustrate how ANYONE with the time and the motivation can identify for themselves what it is they need to know and can also figure out how they can go about knowing it. This puts Nygaard Notes, I hope, in the spirit of a “popular education” tool, aimed not just at illuminating reality for a moment, but at helping readers to realize their power to change that reality forever. NYGAARD NOTES IS A REFERENCE TOOL. Unlike the daily press, Nygaard Notes constantly seeks to give the background and context for the news items it reports, making it more than what we call “news.” By scouring and condensing large amounts of data and research into bite-sized articles that are easy to read, the Notes allows people to make better sense of the information they do receive from the mainstream sources that surround us all. As a reader wrote to me last year, “I have a file of important Nygaard Notes articles. It's one of the most important resources available, period.” Next week: Even MORE reasons why Nygaard Notes deserves your support! |