In February, I wrote “30 Years in Print,” recalling how Inside Sacramento began as a neighborhood experiment and grew into the largest print circulation publication in Northern California, with 80,000 copies of each monthly issue delivered to homes, helping to define our community.
The milestone was celebratory and sobering.
For three decades, Inside Sacramento has been 100% advertising supported. We don’t charge for the magazine. No subscription requirements or paywalls. Our model is simple. Local businesses invest in reaching local readers.
We deliver high-quality journalism, storytelling and photography to the neighborhoods we share.
But the media landscape has changed.
Advertising dollars that supported robust local coverage migrated to national platforms and digital algorithms. Printing and distribution costs climbed. Independent, locally owned publications shrank or disappeared.
I have no intention of letting that happen to Inside.
I want to share an important evolution for our magazine, an evolution rooted not in retreat but sustainability.
Inside is transitioning to a nonprofit partnership model that will allow us to accept tax-deductible donations and pursue grants to support local journalism.
This doesn’t mean we’re abandoning our advertising base. Local business partnerships are essential and deeply valued. But to ensure the next 30 years, we must diversify our funding sources.
Through a nonprofit partnership, readers and supporters can make tax-deductible contributions earmarked to support community journalism. This will open doors to grants and philanthropy unavailable to for-profit entities.
We make this change because local journalism isn’t just a business. It’s part of the civic infrastructure.
When we report on neighborhood development proposals, city programs and budgets, preservation or small business openings, we aren’t simply filling pages. We document the city’s life, inform voters and connect neighbors. We preserve the institutional memories of the community.
A nonprofit partnership allows us to strengthen that mission in several ways.
First, it provides financial resilience. Reader contributions and grants can help underwrite investigative work, expand arts and culture coverage, and support civic reporting.
Second, it reinforces accountability to the community. Donations aren’t payments for access. They are investments in public service journalism.
Third, it positions Inside Sacramento alongside a national movement of community-supported local news organizations that blend business revenue with philanthropy to remain independent and locally controlled.
Our editorial independence is firm. Advertising partners don’t influence our reporting. Moving forward, donors won’t influence our journalism. Our commitment to fair, factual, neighborhood-centered reporting is unchanged.
If you have enjoyed Inside Sacramento free in your mailbox for years, that will continue. We won’t build a paywall. We won’t abandon print. We believe print is one of the most powerful ways to reach a community.
But we will invite you to participate more directly.
If you believe local journalism matters and value neighborhood storytelling, profiles, arts coverage and civic reporting, you can support our work with a $30 annual Inside membership and through our nonprofit fiscal sponsor, Friends of East Sacramento, with a tax-deductible contribution.
In “30 Years in Print,” I expressed gratitude for the advertisers, writers, photographers and readers who built this publication. My gratitude only grows.
For three decades, Inside Sacramento belonged to the community. We are formalizing the relationship in a new way.
The future of local journalism needs to be secured by readers and donors. With more than 100,000 readers each month, if only 3% of our readers become paid members, we can go a long way toward closing our funding gap.
If you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation or using your Required Minimum Distribution, please contact me at cecily@insidepublications.com. I will send a donor packet with options.
Cecily Hastings can be reached at publisher@insidepublications.com. Follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
