Why I’m Donating to WQXR (and why you should support CultureGrrl)

Click above, to show you care.

I'm not wealthy and I don't make many donations. I give almost exclusively to entities that have greatly enhanced my own quality of life---primarily the educational institutions that I've attended. And as soon as I finish writing this post, I intend to make a contribution to WQXR, the New York classical music station that I listen to daily and rely upon for constant cultural sustenance.

As you know, that station, formerly owned by the NY Times, recently became a public radio station, acquired by WNYC. My fears about possible poor reception at the new frequency or off-putting programming have (for me, at least) proven unfounded. I am relieved and very grateful.

CultureGrrl is not a nonprofit organization. It's just me, doing something that makes no financial sense because I like doing it and know (from the feedback I regularly receive) that it has value to a sophisticated visual-arts audience. I could spend the same time writing mainstream-media articles for which I get paid. And I probably should.

But as I recently told Deanna Isaacs of the Chicago Reader:

Blogging is an addiction. I'd still like to cut back on the amount of time I'm devoting to it, but it's a great genre, and I feel a particular affinity for it. It's hard to break away from that.

If you are among the devoted readers who have come to value CultureGrrl's journalism, commentary and comedy, I hope you'll do for my blog what I'm about to do for the radio station that I greatly value---help keep it going.

I've been blogging up a storm over the past couple of weeks, but there are currently no ads in my righthand column, no classifieds in my middle column, and no new clickers on my "Donate" button in the last two weeks. (That said, many thanks to CultureGrrl Donor 76 and Repeat Donor 77---whom I have not previously acknowledged---from Atlanta and Lafayette, LA.)

I know that online news and blogs are traditionally free and that getting people to pay for them is an uphill battle. Why shell out money for something when you don't have to? But even some online readers of the NY Times, concerned about the newsroom buyouts and possible layoffs that it just announced today, have (according to Gillian Reagan's report in the NY Observer) made it known that they WANT to pay money to read the Times online, because they value it and want it to continue in the style to which they're accustomed.

If what I do is worth something to you, I hope you'll consider letting me know that...in a tangible way. Large or small, all manner of support is a form of encouragement. If there's some foundation or guardian angel interested in underwriting what I do and receiving credit as a major sponsor, so much the better.

I do want to keep CultureGrrl alive, but not for nothing.