Parent company approved for direct public offer
Sonoma West Publishers, the family-owned company that publishes the Healdsburg Tribune, has announced a unique business model that will allow newspaper readers to invest in the company.
Called a Direct Public Offer (DPO), the funding tool has been used by companies all over the country, notably by Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, which raised $750,000 in 1984 with this tool.
Sonoma West Publishers is seeking to raise $400,000 through its yearlong DPO, which was approved by the State of California in late January.
“The old model of advertisers and subscribers being the only source of income doesn’t work anymore,” said Rollie Atkinson, who owns Sonoma West Publishers with his wife, Associate Publisher Sarah Bradbury. “Like many companies that want to survive and thrive in the internet age, we have to diversify our revenue to stay true to our mission.”
Atkinson stresses that the DPO is not a donation. “Our structure allows us to pay a 3 percent dividend to investors, which is a little better than banks right now,” Atkinson said. “But, believers in independent journalism will support us from their hearts, not as an addition to their portfolios.”
According to Atkinson, the additional funds raised through the DPO will allow Sonoma West Publishers to: “invest in journalism and journalists, in print and online. Providing our communities with reliable, accurate and timely news is hard work and requires training and dedication. It also requires modern digital tools.”
Likewise, Atkinson says Sonoma West Publishers will invest in expanded and enhanced advertising opportunities, a key factor in making the business successful. “There are tens of thousands of people visiting our websites and reading our newspapers every week and we have to do a better job connecting them with local advertisers.”
Atkinson also says that by inviting community investment, the newspapers are claiming their place as community institutions. “Just like city hall, or the high school, or the local Legion post or the chamber of commerce, most people can’t imagine a town without its own newspaper. We agree and we want to provide an opportunity for everyone to support its sustainability. The Healdsburg Tribune has been around for 153 years, since 1865 and we intend to keep it around for a long time.”
The benefits of local ownership are also personal, Atkinson said. “When people talk to me about the Healdsburg Tribune, they never say ‘your newspaper,’ ” Atkinson said. “They refer to the Tribune as ‘my newspaper.’ They know that a local, independent news voice is essential to a small community. If people value this newspaper so much that they feel like they own it, I decided to give them the opportunity to actually own a part of it.”
Atkinson sees the four newspapers he and Bradbury own (the Cloverdale Reveille, the Healdsburg Tribune, the Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times & News) as traditional news outlets, that may deliver the news in modern ways (online and in print) but adhere to professional standards of ethics and accuracy.
“The rise of social media has fostered a tsunami of fake news and if you get all your news from your smartphone, you risk never knowing the truth,” he said. “We pledge to always tell you the truth and to be accountable for everything we print.”
For more information about the DPO, visit invest.sonomawest.com or call Rollie Atkinson at 433-4451.
