Editor's Note: Mendo Local Celebrates Its First Anniversary and New Infrastructure

Dear Mendo Local supporters,

We have hit a milestone!

Two weeks before MendoLocal.News celebrated its one-year anniversary, we have moved our publication onto a brand-new infrastructure designed to carry us into the future.

To be clear: we haven't moved. We've changed our infrastructure. It's a wonky change, but an important one. We're still at the same address, but we're now housed in a spanking-new building designed for long-term sustainability.

The new infrastructure will allow us to launch new programs, including prominent announcements from our sponsors, and gives us much more room to grow.

You helped us get here

We asked you to support local news, and you did.

Together, you raised $10,000. Combined with external grants, that was enough to cover our operating costs for our first year.

Together, we made it through that first year, and we didn't just survive, we thrived. In the past year, we published almost 400 stories and built an audience of thousands of people who turn to Mendo Local for fact-checked local news.

We have more good news to share.

We received a $5,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation through the Tiny News Collective.

And we've been selected to participate in INN NewsMatch.

This is a big deal. During November and December, every donation you make to Mendo Local will be matched, doubling your contribution (up to a finite amount that will be shared closer to the date). NewsMatch is a great time to renew your annual subscription.

We're also launching a Founder's Campaign that could allow us to triple or even quadruple the impact of your NewsMatch donation.

The dream of a sustainable, collaborative infrastructure for fact-checked local news is within our collective reach.

Two things we need from you

1. Please check your email preferences.

When you have a chance, log into your account on the new site and make sure your email preferences are what you want them to be.

This is particularly important if you only want to receive the weekly roundup. The migration opted some readers into news alerts, so you may need to change your settings.

2. Tell us if you find something weird.

If you notice a broken link, a missing story or anything else that doesn't look right, please email us at editor@mendolocal.news.

All of our original stories are in the archive, but the regional sections are still being populated. Building these section is manual process, and with 350+ stories published in our first year, it's going to take a while.

In the meantime, you can find older stories through the site's search function.

Thank you again, again and again.

Local News only works in partnership. I treasure ours.

Elise Cox
Editor, MendoLocal.News