If You Value Local COVID-19 Coverage…

Dear friends,

As the COVID-19 outbreak spreads, it presents a truly unprecedented challenge for the people of the Levittown area and the entire planet. Lives and businesses have been disrupted in ways unimaginable just earlier this month. Together with neighbors, we’re grappling with illness, loss of income, loss of routines, and mounting uncertainty about the days and weeks ahead. All of us are trying to best handle the disruptions caused by the outbreak.

Over the past two weeks, the number of readers looking to LevittownNow.com to get vital information and make sense of the impact of COVID-19 has spiked to a level rarely seen before.

Our primary job is to keep you informed about what’s happening in your community. When everyone’s health and finances are on the line, our mission has an added weight.

Here’s what we are doing to serve our community:

• So far, we’ve published 90 articles with local impact about COVID–19. We broke news of a drive-thru testing site and a police officer who has the virus, while also shooting down dangerous rumors. We’ve reported on the impact on businesses, your health, information on business stay-at-home orders from the governor, and spoke with an epidemiologist about coronaviruses. We’ve even had time to publish stories unrelated to the virus, including the tale of a long-lost flag and a major drug arrest. Our partners at The Center Square, PA Post, and Spotlight PA have also monitored the situation from Harrisburg and provided high-level coverage.
• We’ve been the only local news outlet to live stream all of the Bucks County government’s press conferences on COVID–19. Those streams have been vital sources of information and have gained more than 100,000 views.
• We are in regular contact with the county’s public health director, local officials, the state health department, and the chief county public information officer to track the spread of the virus and keep up to speed on the latest information and recommendations to contain it.
• Answering reader questions via phone, text, email, and social media has also been a priority. We’ve answered more than 400 emails, calls, text messages, and social media messages over the past three weeks.
• In addition, reporters Elizabeth Fisher and John Fey have all contributed during this trying time. Local support has allowed us to have them push forward with additional coverage that is in the works.
• We’ve offered advertising space for free and at discounted rates to businesses deeply impacted by COVID-19. Today, we offered nonprofits working with those impacted by COVID-19 free ad space. Advertising is our main source of revenue, but we’re making deep price cuts to try to help our fellow small businesses and nonprofits.

Throughout the nation news organizations – both print and digital – have been grappling with how best to cover the ever-evolving pandemic and also stay in business. We’ve been sharing information with other local news organizations in the region and many have been reciprocating that effort. Over the past week, we’ve been collaborating with small, locally-owned news organizations across the country to share business ideas and ways we can help our small business communities.

Some news organizations that have mandatory paywalls have decided to take down their paywalls to make the most important stories accessible to the public.

Our founding goal of providing local news to readers no matter their means remains. At the LevittownNow.com, we believe an informed readership makes the community in which we live a better one. That is why we have never hidden our stories behind a paywall. Our important local coverage has been free, is free, and will remain free. You can count on us to keep you up to date on the latest local developments pertaining to COVID-19 and other local stories. Just as we have done for the past 7 years.

We’re committed to providing trustworthy reporting on this topic for as long as necessary.

In a time like this, the importance of local reporting cannot be overstated. We know you rely on LevittownNow.com for this type of important journalism, whether it relates to public health crises, police news, municipal government, what happens in the schools or other pressing issues that impact you and your loved ones’ daily lives.

We are glad to be able to provide this critical service, but we can’t do it without your support.

While our coverage is free, it does not happen without paying our team. We need to pursue the news, vet it and write it up, while also paying for supplies, our web hosting, gas, and office rent.

As you’ve seen, truthful local news is and will continue to be essential in the coming weeks and months. If you have the means to support access to local news for all for just a few dollars a month, we hope you will consider supporting our coverage. Joining our In The Know Club, which comes with benefits like text message news alerts, will allow us to sustain and grow our coverage.

If you’re already a member, thank you. If not and you have the means, I hope we can count on you to support the important local journalism we can’t afford to lose.

We’re all in this together.

Tom Sofield