Hey, Columbia. It’s Samantha and David, your local City Editors. We’re here to express how much we love bringing COLAtoday to your inboxes each and every morning. But we’re not the only ones working day in and day out.
Enter: our 100+ colleagues.
We are 6AM City, the parent company of COLAtoday. We are account managers, sales execs, writers, graphic designers, tech support specialists, growth marketers, managing editors, and much more. We’re the people on a mission to engage communities by aggregating the most positive, impactful local news and events into a free, daily email newsletter. Maybe you caught the magic word in there — free. We pride ourselves on the fact that we’re able to offer our product at no cost for subscribers, and we intend to keep it that way. For the next 10 days, we’re giving our readers the opportunity to support our local reporting.
Why?
We impact readers’ lives. We receive hundreds of thank you emails every week, and often you ask how you can support us. That’s why we’ve created this campaign with a goal to raise $4,000 over the next 10 days. If you’ve gotten something out of being subscribed to COLAtoday, like finding that life-changing concert in our Events section, or using our City Guides to plan the perfect way to spend the day with family, or impressing your dinner guests with all the details of that new development going up — we couldn’t be more honored to be part of your life. And we’re calling on you now to help support our mission.
We’re committed to maintaining our readers’ trust. Fun fact: We’ve turned down more than a million dollars in political ads since we first started — we’re that serious about our brand promise. We think reading about what’s going on in your city should be a positive experience, not something that rockets your blood pressure before you’ve even started your day.
And in the words of our VP of Editorial Erin McPherson: “Because we intentionally do not cover political news — but we do cover outcomes and decided-upon policies — we are better positioned to serve our readers news that actually impacts their daily lives, their experience in their cities, and their ability to inform, engage with, and participate in what's happening around them.”
The truth is, we love what we do. Sharing the most positive local news and events with our readers fuels us every day. If you’ve felt the love for our product too, help us today with a one-time contribution that supports local storytelling.
A few reminders about us:
We curate local news. No matter which news outlet, community organization, small business, or reader breaks the story — the most positive local news and events worth your attention are curated into our daily newsletter. While our operations span multiple cities, our dedicated City Editors live, work, and play in Soda City, carrying out our mission to highlight the incredible small businesses, non-profits, and city programs you want to hear about.
We listen to our employees. Some perks we’re proud to offer: All of our employees receive unlimited PTO. We cover wi-fi costs, since most of our employees work remotely from their homes. We have a stipend for new parents. We match 401K contributions. And, fun fact, many of these initiatives were the result of surveying our employees for their feedback. By supporting us, you’re supporting a company culture that thinks intentionally about our workers and strives to provide as much support as possible.
We grow money on trees. Just kidding. While we have incredible advertising partners across all our communities that help to make this product free, it takes more to keep a modern media company healthy. We know the challenges legacy media companies have experienced, and we’re turning to our loyal readers to invest in our team. This year, your contribution will go incredibly far to support our staff, back an unbiased approach to local and participatory storytelling, and keep our product free for the whole community.
Frankly, we love what we do. If you’ve felt the love for our product too, help us today with a one-time contribution that supports local media — delivered daily by the most positive publication in town.
