Alley Readers Keep the Paper Going!

As a community-driven newspaper, we try diligently to stay on mission in serving the Phillips Community and to do so within our financial means. A relatively small group of dedicated volunteers and 3 very part-time contracted staff members—–a business manager, design/layout coordinator and community connector—-work to get the paper out each month. Other contracted support is provided by the printing company, an accountant, and bulk drop delivery person. Of course, our regular advertisers and writing contributors are to be commended because without them, we would not have the basics needed to produce the paper each month.

How do we know if this 50 year old community paper is fulfilling its purpose? Well, we don’t! We don’t have the funds for marketing or reader surveys so we rely on several more “low tech” ways.

• One way we know the paper is still of interest to folks is that papers are picked-up from the 114 drop sites.
• Another indication of interest in preserving the alley is the results from our fundraising appeal in late 2025; we raised about 6 percent of our annual budget of $42,000 from our readers! This was a remarkable and welcome occurrence that was so important to the financial wellbeing of Alley Communications, the nonprofit publisher of the alley.