Phoenix New Times
Audio By Carbonatix
Per tradition each December, the reporters and editors of Phoenix New Times take a moment to close our laptops, dust the crumbs off our T-shirts and ask the bosses: When, exactly, can we hit the bar?
The answer is real soon. And as we log off and hoist a glass with our editors, writers and photographers, we’re also extending the call to our members. Join our membership program and you, too, will receive an invite to join us at a happy hour in downtown Phoenix (plus other events in the new year).
How to join and the party details
Readers can become members by giving any amount to support our newsroom. Already a member? Watch for the email invitation to our event: a happy hour on Wednesday, Dec. 17 at Luckys Indoor Outdoor, 817 N. Second St., beginning at 6 p.m. Space is limited, so please RSVP if you want to join us.
This year, make your gift count –
Invest in local news that matters.
Our work is funded by readers like you who make voluntary gifts because they value our work and want to see it continue. Make a contribution today to help us reach our $30,000 goal!
Sharing a drink and a laugh feels like the least we can do. Our members, after all, support us and provide a vital public service for the people of Phoenix. In my experience, members are also the sort of folks who read widely, care about their city, and who thus turn out to be a blast to mingle with at the bar.
This fall we set an ambitious goal of $30,000 for our year-end membership drive. That haul would represent an enormous step toward keeping our coverage of the Valley aggressive and robust in 2026. If the giving spirit moves you, we’d love all the help we can get.
Luckys Indoor Outdoor
New Times members are vital to covering Phoenix
This has been one helluva year to be in the local news business. You read our coverage, so you know. We’ve been in these streets chasing ICE raids, camping out at perverse city council meetings, covering a certain funeral at State Farm Stadium, uncovering Trump’s secret military advisors, investigating artists who traffic in hate speech, spotlighting the area restaurants feeding SNAP recipients who might otherwise have gone hungry, and blowing up some shady data center lobbying by an opportunistic ex-senator whose name you can probably guess by that description alone.
All of this work represents a monumental effort by our scrappy staff. New Times will publish nearly 3,000 individual articles this year, with thousands more posts across social media. Each of those stories and posts represents an effort to improve the lives of people in the Valley, at no cost to our readers.
Yes, we could use a drink. Yes, you probably can, as well. Just as we pour member contributions right back into covering the Valley, we also like to pour at least one cold one back into our members.
We’re fortunate to be able to do such rewarding work amid tectonic changes in our city and in the country at large. And we’re lucky to have readers who share the same sense of urgency. Thank you for making this incredible ride possible. Because we’re nowhere near ready to tab out.
