10 Reasons to Read This Story
Thanks for clicking on this story. I won't beat around the bush. Here are the 10 reasons why we want you to read it:
1. We will be doing something different. AlterNet will stand out this fall. Frankly, I don't want to send all of you millions of emails and pester you for support. Half of the time you ignore them anyway. :)
2. We will do what no one else will do, not the same old same old. We will have fun and stretch the boundaries. We want you to join us in the adventure.
3. We want you to laugh and not get depressed. We will not repeat, over and over, the scary stuff about the state of the nation. We'd rather be inspiring action.
4. Of course we'll still be serious about the radical right, the failure of the corporate media and the consequences of the upcoming election. (But since you know AlterNet, we doubt you would worry about that.)
5. So what is it we are going to do? Well, we hope to motivate you by passion, curiosity, and inspiration to be more involved in AlterNet, and not by fear.
6. We will organize our campaign in a way that has proven immensely popular to you, our readers, over the past decade. AlterNet is widely known for our Top 10 lists -- some of the most popular on the internet. So in this campaign, in the next months, we will tell you many stories -- about us, about you, about the world, but only using lists.
7. Why lists? Because we trust your judgement as our readers. Time after time our Top 10 lists are the most popular, the most read, the most viral, the most emailed, the most popular on Facebook and Reddit. It's not even close. Some weeks 8 out of the 10 most read stories by our readers are lists. And when Salon republishes our lists, they become some of the most read articles there, too.
8. Why are lists so popular? Organizing information in lists is clearly one of the most effective ways of communicating information and satisfying your need to know about politics and change. Lists work because: A) they make the material clearer; B) they make it easier to remember; and C) they cut through the massive amounts of words, sounds and images, coming at you to give you digestible amounts of content so you don't get overwhelmed.
9. Of course, we won't be a one trick pony. Have no fear. Strong narrative, investigative reports, personal voice -- all the tools of great writing will remain present on AlterNet, along with the popular lists.
10. So with this communiqué we are launching our fall campaign for support. And it is true: we haven't asked you for any money. Of course AlterNet needs money. But we all also need something else, something perhaps more important. We progressives need to "think differently." We need more confidence. We need to feel like we are working on something together, and not doing the same thing over and over, while the Right succeeds in taking over our country.
We must do what ever it takes to protect our values, our people and our team. And I think you will agree, a lot of the same old stuff hasn't been working so well.
Over the next months we will send you lists... some funny, some deadly serious, some informational, some surprising -- some from you our readers, some from our star writers -- all interesting, entertaining and inspired by our goals.
So, if you believe in AlterNet, like what you are reading and want to support us, we welcome you and we appreciate whatever you can do.
Best,
Don Hazen
Executive Editor, AlterNet
P.S. If you just want to read our top ten lists, and are not on our mailing list, click here to sign up.
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