Please help us to continue to cover the economic impacts of COVID on the Tri-Cities

Dear Tri-City Herald readers,

Last week we launched a new fundraising campaign to support our coverage of a critical area of our community — local businesses.

Restaurant owners, retailers and so many others are struggling during this coronavirus pandemic.

And along with them their employees and families.

You’ve told us you want to know more about how to help them survive, rebuild or pivot to something new.

We can’t share their spirited stories of innovation, determination and, often, grit without you.

In the next few weeks, we are asking for your help in raising $15,000 to ensure the Tri-City Herald can continue to cover the coronavirus and its economic fallout in the Mid-Columbia.

We’ve given you information you needed to live a somewhat normal life during these challenging times, from restaurants with special to-go menus and expanded outside seating to hotels and other businesses forging ahead.

And we’ve brought you exclusive coverage, including the Tri-City Court Club’s rebranding into a wellness center, tension and chaos of medical workers inside Trios hospital, layoffs by troubled manufacturers, the deaths of essential food processing workers and the challenges of builders and home buyers.

More people than ever are turning to the Herald to understand this rapidly changing business landscape.

But the news industry also finds itself in an ongoing economic challenge, and we are asking for your help at a time when responsible news coverage by the most-experienced news team in the Tri-Cities is as critical as ever.

We want to tell the stories of the entrepreneurs who have found a way to survive and in some cases even thrive, while others were forced down a different path.

This new fundraising effort — the first of its kind for us — will directly support Tri-Cities journalists.

It’s quick and easy to make a tax-deductible donation through a charitable trust, Local Media Foundation, to givebutter.com/tricityherald.

If you prefer to send a check, you can do that too. Please make it out to the Local Media Foundation and in the notes field on the check, write “Tri-City Herald.” If you include your email address, they will send you a tax donation letter.

The check should be mailed to: Local Media Foundation, PO Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689-5015.

If you have any problems or questions, contact me at lwilliams@tricityherald.com or 509-582-1523.

— Laurie Williams, Executive Editor

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.