We need your help to keep New Times journalism fierce and free

As I write this, the average price of gas in Arizona is soaring queasily close to $5 a gallon. Rents have been falling lately in Phoenix — mostly because they also had gotten absurdly expensive. Since the Diamondbacks last won their division, in 2011, the price of the average ticket at Chase Field has more than doubled.

Everywhere you look, the essentials — and the nice-to-haves — keep giving you less bang for your buck.

And then there’s Phoenix New Times. Every week since we launched in 1970, we’ve charged readers the same price for a copy of the paper. That number is zero. Nada. As free as a Hole-in-the-Rock sunset view or birdsong on an April day. (Cheep!) Our website likewise provides hundreds of stories a month, also for free, illuminating the Valley’s breaking news as well as its music, culture and dining scenes.

We bring you this independent journalism thanks to ordinary people who step up to support us. Our spring fundraiser, going on now, is when we invite you to join our membership program to help keep our coverage vibrant and our voice loud. (We’re also offering newly designed swag to folks who sign up — click that link to give it a look.)

If you can send a few dollars to support New Times, we promise to pay it forward. In the past few months, we’ve put our resources toward the kind of big swings readers know us for. We chased a major measles outbreak that owes in part to the legacy of a criminal cult leader. We dived into a labyrinth of documents to suss out Trumpers’ secret plans to deploy the military against American citizens. We scored an exclusive interview with Phoenix’s most notorious street tagger. (You know the one.) And we’ve dogged the abuses of law enforcement both local and federal in Phoenix’s streets. 

These are stories that simply wouldn’t be told if we weren’t on the beat.

Our stories are free to read. Meanwhile our local team of reporters, editors, photographers, illustrators, designers, printers, coders, and sales and business staff are decidedly not free. Advertisers still provide most of our revenue, same as in the ‘70s. But as the ad landscape shifts, we have to adapt. Like so many media companies, we rely on Google’s and Meta’s algorithms to connect us to much of our audience. As the tech giants swap out original journalism and replace it with other content (much of it synthetic gunk, manufactured by AI) we have turned to readers to help us fund the work we do. It’s honestly humbling to see how many of you have answered the call and stepped up to help us in our mission.

I wouldn’t ask you for this support if I didn’t think we were bringing you the goods. Our goal every day is to make the Valley a richer, more vibrant place to live by giving readers clear, accountable, interesting information. If you can help us gas up this machine, we’ll do our damnedest to bring the full force of this incredible staff to bear in your community. With your help, our publication can remain strong, fearless and free for the people of Phoenix.