For more than 12 years, V.I.A. has been a place for people to learn about what's happening in their city—for free.
For the majority of that time, we've relied on advertisers to foot the bill to pay our salaries, web hosting, office expenses and everything else, which has allowed us to grow into a robust team that delivers information about our community, including local news, food, travel and other lifestyle coverage.
Since the COVID-19 crisis hit, every single one of our advertisers has been affected. Restaurants have shut down, events are on hold, and a large number of businesses—big and small—are just barely holding on.
Throughout this, as ads were pulled and our revenue dropped, we've worked harder than ever to keep delivering readers the information they need about their community each and every day.
And it shows that you needed us.
In March, our web traffic hit a record 7.75 million page views, up from 4.3 million the month before.
What does this mean? Well, it tells me that our work has never been more important, and while it's a crazy time for everyone, we all feel fortunate that we're able to keep people informed—and maybe even somewhat entertained still.
This week, we launched a donor drive on our site. If you can afford to and feel so inclined, you can help us continue to deliver the information you need.
If not, that's OK. Everything we do is still free for everyone to access.
You don't have to sign up or sign in; you can simply drop in your credit card and choose a one-time payment, or a monthly subscription—which includes an offer for a digital subscription to the Globe and Mail.
Please consider helping us out HERE.
