The Save Our Stories campaign has been picking up pace over the last week, with over £190,000 raised. So far, nearly 1,000 supporters – from the UK to Papua New Guinea – have bought community shares in New Internationalist. Welcome to everyone who has joined us!

We are more than halfway towards our target, but we still need to raise another £158,000 to ensure we can carry out our full Covid rescue-plan. We have just one week left.

So for anyone who has been planning to make a pledge – or to tell a friend about it – now is your chance.

The word is out

There has been more media coverage of the Save Our Stories campaign, including from fellow independent magazine Red Pepper who published this piece by our Co-editor Amy Hall on the need to protect independent media. Public ownership campaigners We Own it also published this post about the move to democratize the media.

Last week we heard from long-time New Internationalist contributor and photojournalist Julio Etchart who reflected on the benefits of submitting work to a truly independent publisher. You can read his post here on our website.

Don’t just take it from us

Over the past few weeks it’s been emphasized to us how many people many think that New Internationalist’s special brand of global, solutions-focused journalism is irreplaceable. It’s also shown what can happen when hundreds of people come together to build truly people-powered media – a much-needed antidote to the increasingly concentrated set of wealthy individuals and powerful companies who shape much of the news agenda.

Here are just some of the reasons people have given for their investments on the Crowdfunder page:

‘The educational value of New Internationalist magazine is such that to contemplate a world without it would be a great loss.’

‘We need New Internationalist more than ever. It is a great source of ideas and information and an important resource in the movement for global solidarity and greater equality.’

‘This is the one publication I rely on for news and perspective on the world's most important issues.’

What about that target?

If we reach our target, we will not just survive the impacts of the pandemic on our business but be able to invest in our costed plan to make New Internationalist more sustainable for the long-term, giving thousands more people across the world access to international journalism they can trust. Through this work we aim to increase magazine subscriptions by 4,500 in the next three years – the amount we need to be self-sustaining and more able to withstand those inevitable future shocks.

However, if we don’t manage to raise the full amount of investment we won’t be able to do many of the activities we have planned to develop our marketing streams, diversify our sources of new subscribers and build our audience outside the UK. Ultimately, we won’t be able to do much more than keep our head above water financially.

What you can do to help

As we enter the final stretch of the campaign. We need to get as many people involved as we can! Anything you can do in this last week will make a real difference to New Internationalist’s future.

This includes sharing the #SaveOurStories campaign page as a Tweet, Facebook or LinkedIn post and spreading the word to friends, family and other contacts via email, phone call or phone messages. You could even record a short video explaining why you think people should support the campaign. Amy and Rob from our team had a go at doing that last week.

As that final countdown keeps ticking, let’s give it everything we’ve got!

• Discover unique global perspectives
• Support cutting-edge independent media
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• Digital archive of over 500 issues
• Fund in-depth, high quality journalism

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