The JC needs your support to bring you first class journalism

BY STEPHEN POLLARD

► Dear reader,

Earlier this year I wrote about the generous donations made by a number of people in the community to ensure the future of the JC. For years we were dogged by a huge pension deficit that threatened the paper’s existence. Thanks to the support of those anonymous donors, that has now been settled, equitably, and the paper has been able to maintain the independence on which our reputation is founded, and can now stand on its own merits.

I hope you agree those merits are considerable. As the voice of the British Jewish community, we have a network of correspondents covering every country with a Jewish community. The paper and the website contain page after page of cuttingedge reporting and analysis from household name columnists and sections covering food, business, arts and travel.

Quality journalism is more vital now than ever — and especially so to our community. And only the JC provides this level of journalism. I write this in the middle of an election campaign that, whatever your politics may be, we can all agree is epochal. But journalism of the quality we demand from our writers is labour intensive and expensive, which is increasingly difficult to afford with the internet having transformed the world of news and comment, giving people access to far more free content.

We are grateful to our advertisers for their continued loyal support, but the growing shift to on-line news inevitably puts pressure on print advertising — the model that has sustained papers like the JC for decades.

Our website is now attracting record numbers of readers and we are committed to keeping it available for free for our many on-line readers. But to be blunt, in order to continue to provide our unrivalled quality journalism we need additional funds so, as you will soon see on our site, we will now be asking website readers for financial support. We are also continuing to raise money from philanthropic sources that share our commitment to ensuring independent, high-quality journalism remains available to our community.

But inevitably we also have to ask you, our loyal paper readers, for a small increase in what you pay. Compared with the cost of similar publications, we think the JC remains exceptional value for money. And if you take out a subscription it is even better value.

Please be assured, this was not a decision taken lightly and all of us at the JC are committed to do our part to preserve the quality of the paper we all love . But I hope you agree it is a necessary decision.

Best,

Our website is now attracting record numbers’