We’ve come a long way since the Bushwick Daily website was launched back in 2010. Since then, we’ve published 11 years’ worth of content, picked up thousands of daily readers, greatly expanded our coverage and evolved from a neighborhood blog to a community news publication. 

When this website launched 11 years ago, little did we know – or expect – that it would grow to become one of the most popular and trafficked online local news publications in all of New York City. Since then, Bushwick Daily has expanded from being focused on art and culture to covering local news, politics, activism, businesses, events and the elected officials, community leaders, activists, artists and business owners who shape North Brooklyn. 

In those 11 years, we have had the pleasure of sharing with you, our readers, thousands of notable news items, guides to the neighborhood, heroes of Bushwick, weirdos of Bushwick, happy hour guides, community board plans, real estate developer plans, activist actions, public safety updates, event listings, community resources, community organizations and restaurant guides.

In that period we have, of course, also witnessed the destruction of many local news organizations. We’ve seen the crumbling of user experiences on many websites as publications paint their stories with relentless walls of popup ads just to stay afloat. We’ve also seen more and more paywalls on local news websites. By establishing these paywalls, publications are locking away valuable information and contributing to the spread of misinformation. 

As our community news outlets fall, so do our voting rates, our ability to safeguard our neighborhoods from wrongdoings and corruption and, most prominently, our ability to understand and participate in our own communities.

That’s what local news is all about – delivering facts about what local politicians are doing so community members can walk down the block to voice the issues that are important to them. It’s about letting people know that a mutual aid organization is looking for donations to buy groceries. It’s about highlighting incredible people and giving community members an opportunity to visit and support them. It’s about publicizing what community leaders are saying about issues that affect daily lives. It’s about giving people an opportunity to engage directly and tangibly with their neighborhoods. It’s about empowering people to understand the changes they see around them. It’s about elevating the voices of those who have historically been underrepresented and repressed. It’s a starting point for debate and discussion among neighbors. And it is a history book – a reference point for future analysis. 

Our 5 boroughs may be home to some of the largest news outlets in the nation, but New York City is also one of the biggest local news deserts in the entire country. More people across the 5 boroughs lack a local news publication than anywhere else in the United States. Using national news as a lens to understand our communities does not work.

Bushwick Daily has always been financially possible due to our local advertising partners who have paid for display advertisements on the website. When the pandemic hit and the world shut down, many of our advertisers indefinitely suspended their campaigns. 

To avoid insolvency, we announced and launched a paid subscription program for our readers. This paid subscription would not come with the building of a paywall. We never have and will never build a wall around our content. Instead of strong-arming our readers into paying, we have decided to ask you, our readers, to support our publication through a monthly contribution of $10 per month (less than 33 cents per day). 

And in return for your support, we are giving our monthly paying subscribers access to something we are calling Bushwick Daily Premium.

Here’s what Bushwick Daily Premium includes: 

We would like to have enough paying subscribers to get everyone on our team health coverage insurance. To do this, we will need at least 1,400 subscribers. After fully insuring our team, we also hope that enough people sign up to allow us to aggressively grow our team and expand our coverage, both thematically and geographically, to eradicate all the news deserts in NYC and ensure that all 8.5 million of us across the 5 boroughs have access to quality local journalism in our neighborhoods.

Join today.