Since our launch in March 2017, we have always pledged that unlike some publications, we will never – ever – have a paywall.
That remains true today, and always will. Every single one of our stories will be free, from our free obituaries to our hard-hitting stories about local government and public safety. To sustain this independent nonprofit project, we rely on a combination of sponsorships from advertisers, donations from readers, and grants from foundations.
Now, we’re adding a voluntary membership program to help us better connect with you, our readers.
We’re offering three tiers of membership for our new Wausau Pilot Club, all of which are less than the price of a monthly subscription to the city’s daily newspaper.
- For a recurring donation of $9 per month, you’ll be a Silver Member, which means you’ll be entered into drawings for tickets to events in and around the Wausau area on a regular basis and be invited to our members-only events, which we host about twice each year.
- For a recurring donation of $20 per month, you’ll be a Gold Member, which entitles you to all of the Silver benefits, plus you’ll be invited to monthly coffee gatherings held at our new downtown office beginning in October. Meet the staff one-on-one, get a behind the scenes look into everything we do, and offer your ideas and input into stories you’d like to see covered or changes you’d like to see us implement.
- And for a recurring donation of $25 per month, you’ll be a Platinum Member. That gets you all the Gold and Silver benefits, plus we’ll send you your choice of a Wausau Pilot and Review t-shirt, mug, or tote bag.
Donations for memberships are tax deductible, and you can cancel at any time.
Thanks to you, our readers, Wausau Pilot and Review has grown by leaps and bounds. What we initially thought would be a small-scale project to cover news about our local neighborhoods and communities has morphed into something much larger – much more quickly than we could have ever hoped.
We started with a few loyal readers and sponsors. They spread the word to their friends and colleagues, who kept spreading the word to their friends and colleagues. Before long, we added an opinion page, a sports page, a health section, a food section, and more. We’re about to add a neighborhood section to help spread the word about our community groups, and we’re actively recruiting new staff members and freelance reporters to join our team. Now, we’re looking at creative ways to fund more staffers and more features as we continue to grow.
As our coverage as grown, so has our readership. Last August, for example, we were pretty excited to see that our stories were viewed more than 228,000 times in a single month – a new record for us. In August 2018, we more than doubled that amount: Our stories were read more than 535,000 times.
In all, we’ve published more than 4,500 stories – the majority of which are local. Stories that matter to this community. And we’re really just getting started.
To join, visit our Membership Page. All payments are managed through Stripe, a secure payment system. Questions? Drop us a line at [email protected].
We are grateful for your ongoing support, and we look forward to welcoming you as Wausau Pilot Patrons!
