Blog: At Megaphone this month, we’re making a small change to how we do things and I wanted to explain why.
Why you won’t find Megaphone’s feature story online
I’m not one to make big, life-changing New Year’s resolutions. They’re aspirational and, for me, doomed to fail. I prefer small resolutions with potential for big change. Take for instance, Jessica Hannon, 2018 edition. My goals?
- Do one pushup, every day.
- Drink one glass of water, every day.
…Yes, that’s all. They’re small behaviours, but they hold significance for me in their potential for something bigger.
When I say I am going to do one pushup a day, that’s not much of a fitness goal. And drinking one glass of water a day is hardly going to transform me into the picture of health. But one pushup a day is more pushups than I was doing before. And sometimes I go a full workday without pausing to drink a glass of water. If healthier habits is a priority for me, even small changes are important. Because small changes can have big impact.
At Megaphone this month, we’re making a small change to how we do things — consider it our new year’s resolution — and I wanted to explain why.
January’s cover story, “Burn or Freeze?” is a unique piece of investigative journalism that takes a creative look at a familiar news subject: tent cities. You won’t find this story at another media outlet. You also won’t find it on Megaphone’s website, at least until our next issue comes out.
Just like all our cover stories, it’s a feature we hope will help vendors sell more magazines. That’s why we decided to postpone publishing it on our website. We want to ensure Megaphone’s digital presence is a tool that helps our incredible homeless and low-income vendors earn money, not one that hinders their opportunities for meaningful work.
Going forward, we’ll continue to publish a selection of content on our website in the same timely manner. But we’ll postpone the online publication of feature stories, as well as full previews, until the next month’s issue is out.
This was a difficult decision to make. On one hand, we want as many people as possible to read Megaphone. But ultimately, our vendors are at the heart of everything we do, and this is a small change that ensures their success is our priority.
We strive to publish solutions-based content with social impact, and amplify the voices and stories of people marginalized by poverty, racism, ableism, and more. We believe everyone should be able to read these stories. But we also want 2018 to be an even better year for our vendors, and the best way to do that is to create the conditions for them to succeed.
It’s a bit of a risk in this digital age to ask our supporters to go analog, but I’m asking anyway. I think our vendors are worth it. I think our journalism is worth it. And I hope you do, too.
Maybe you could take a page from my book (or a pushup from my workout routine) and set a small, achievable new year’s resolution: Buy Megaphone every month, from your local vendor.
Find vendors on the map on our homepage or download our mobile app to pay vendors even when don’t have cash.
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