17 years ago today I wrote the first post on what would become BikePortland. It was such an innocent post, and written without a clue that I would devote much of my life to this work for the next 17 years.
But here I am, 16,501 posts later. And here we are — still dedicated to this community and still doing what we can to show the world that bicycles and the people who ride them and love them are awesome and worthy of respect.
The amount of change I’ve seen in this city and in the online news business is overwhelming to me at times. Through it all, I’ve kept our core values and principles in tact: respect readers, value conversations, amplify activists, lift up new voices, stimulate the local economy, create an inclusive “big tent”, focus on what matters, don’t chase clicks, and do it all in a way that informs and inspires.
Taken together, all of these things have helped build a strong community of people who care about the good stuff and are willing to work for more of it. That’s what BikePortland is about.
This work has been my full-time job since 2006 when I gave up my other job to chase a dream of being a cycling “citizen journalist”. The dream is still alive! But this last year has been one of many changes internally as I’ve continued to try and make the finances pencil out.
Thanks to the generosity of Mike Perham — a reader who values strong local media so much he stepped up to invest and become a co-owner of our parent company (Pedaltown Media Inc.) last year — I was finally able to breathe a bit easier and make much-needed upgrades to our audio/visual equipment, our backend tech, major website upgrade (wait until you see it!) and writing team.
We’ve taken big and important steps, but the transition to the next chapter of BikePortland has been more challenging than I anticipated and remains a work in progress.
To put it very bluntly, we need a lot more support from this community in order to survive and thrive. I refuse to plaster our work with annoying banner ads and links to stories with gross clickbait photos. We don’t have a sales manager (at least not yet) and we make just a paltry sum from advertisers, so we must continue to grow our base of subscribers and financial contributors.
Please become a subscriber today. If you’re already on the list, thank you! And please tell a few friends or your boss to join you. We have subscriptions for individuals and businesses.
Thank you for reading and being a part of this amazing journey. The best is yet to come.
Check our support page for a list of ways you can contribute.