Niagara At Large Slowing Down For A Few Weeks This May

A Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper

With the federal election over, Niagara At Large is slowing down for a few weeks this May so we can do some maintenance on the site and make some decisions for sustaining it for the future.

Having said that, let me make a few things clear. NAL will not shut down completely during this period. We will continue to post articles on any breaking news that simply can’t be ignored during this slow-down period, and we will post any time-sensitive pieces that are offered by contributing writers who have been so supportive of this site.

We will also continue to post comments from our readers on any and all news and commentary items we have posted here. And certainly, we asked all of you who have been kind enough to keep us in the loop on news events of importance to our greater Niagara region to continue sharing that vital information.
Finally, Niagara At Large has been up and running for more than a year now as one of the only truly independent news and commentary venues in a greater region that includes Niagara, Ontario and our cross-border neighbours, and something must be done to sustain it or it will have to go away.

We are often asked by residents across this region who feel the mainstream media outlets are failing them on issues of concern if we could do more – if we could look into this or investigate that. It is great that so many people look to us as a possible alternative for doing some important reporting but a site like this, if you want to sustain the quality of the content and build on it, cannot continue to function for free. We need help through advertising or readers’ donations or a combination of both. We will be making a decision on this in the weeks ahead and welcome your feedback as readers.

You can comment in the space below or send an email to drapers@vaxxine.com.

Many thanks to all of your for your support for this site today. We had more than 160,000 direct visits to this site in 2010 alone, not to mention many others who read news and commentary from Niagara At Large through email subscriptions and other sources. That is a great foundation for building a vital and bold news source for our region and we look forward to taking advantage of every opportunity to do that.