No Ads, No Agenda, No Exceptions: Our Commitment to Free Local News
April 15, 2026 - Everett, WA
Press photographers gather at an event
Our motto is "together we thrive" and it reflects our belief that the people of Everett deserve to know what's happening in our community without paying for it, and without someone paying to influence what they read. We've made a commitment to never charge for access, never sell advertising, and never accept money in exchange for coverage, placement, or influence.
America's Journalism Crisis
America is living through a catastrophic collapse of local journalism. The United States continues to lose newspapers at a rate of two per week, further dividing the nation into wealthier, faster-growing communities with access to local news and struggling areas without. Last year, a study found that the number of journalists per 100,000 residents has fallen from approximately 40 to just over 8 - a staggering 75% decline in less than 25 years.
"The economically struggling, traditionally underserved communities that need local journalism the most are the very places where it is most difficult to sustain print or digital news organizations." - Penelope Muse Abernathy
The loss of local news is contributing to polarization, decreased voting, and reduced government accountability. Research shows that when local newspapers close, government inefficiency rises and municipal borrowing costs increase - because, as researchers put it, no one is watching. And as local news disappears, Americans rely more heavily on heavily biased national news to make political decisions.
The Money Problem
Much of this collapse is rooted in the consolidation of local media into corporate chains and investment funds, which has prioritized shareholder return over civic mission. The largest chains, backed by private equity firms and hedge funds, have raced to merge and form mega-chains with hundreds of newspapers, with management focused on shareholder return over the civic duty of journalism. Research studying nearly a decade of newspaper ownership changes found that when a newspaper is acquired by an investment-focused owner, coverage shifts toward national politics and away from local politics, while citizen knowledge and voter turnout both decline.
"The profession of journalism ought to be about telling people what they need to know - not what they want to know." Walter Cronkite
Advertising dependency is part of the problem. Research shows that media organizations relying heavily on a specific advertiser or industry are susceptible to what researchers describe as "pro-advertiser bias" - a tendency, conscious or not, to avoid coverage that might offend paying clients. In a survey of media professionals, 64% admitted to considering advertiser reactions when making editorial decisions. Biased content is most likely to occur when competition among media outlets is limited, a situation that grows worse ever year in America.
A New Era for Everett
We believe local journalism is not a product, and the people of Everett are not a market to be monetized. Everett is a city of people making challenging decisions about their kids' schools, their neighborhoods, their local government, their local businesses, and their lives. They deserve journalism that answers to them, and only to them.
Accepting advertising or revenue from commercial interests, however well-intentioned, introduces a structural conflict between the publisher's financial interests and the community's informational interests. It is not that every advertiser seeks influence, or that every outlet that accepts advertising is corrupt, but that the structure itself creates the conditions for bias, and we are living through an era where that structural corruption has helped polarize our nation and erode trust in the press. We want no part of that structure.
EverettCommunity.org will remain free to access, without advertising. We exist to serve Everett, not to profit from it.
Together we thrive.
Subscribe for early access and special features