The Valley Signal
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Teton Valley is changing. Decisions about growth, development, public money, and local government are shaping the place we call home. They affect all of us, and all of us deserve to know what’s being decided, what’s at stake, and whose interests are being served. The valley’s future is too important to leave to speculation, rumor, or the loudest voices in the room.
Good local journalism does more than report the news. It gives a community a common set of facts: a shared place to start from when we disagree, a way to hold decision-makers accountable, and a hand in shaping what comes next. We won’t agree on everything. We should be able to disagree from a shared understanding of what’s happening. That’s what you make possible when you join.
Read along · Free
Teton Valley news, once or twice a week. The reporting is airtight. The introduction is unhinged.
Free for everyone, once or twice a week. We don’t sell or rent the list, and every issue has an unsubscribe link. Privacy
Make it possible · From $12 a month
Every story stays free to read, for everyone in the valley. As a member, you’re the reason it can.
Choose a plan10 members so far, and we don’t name them. Open Books shows where the money goes.
Our 10 members cover 11%.
Keeping it free for everyone takes $1,800 a month: about 160 Lookouts at $12, or 80 Watchdogs at $25. All three steps
Founding members 10 of 100 taken
The first 100 members are numbered in the order they join, and keep the number for good.
A local business, or thinking about more than $1,000? For advertising, sponsorship or a bigger gift, email [email protected] and we’ll talk.
No single journalist, reader, or institution can do this alone. Together, we can.
Members buy support, not influence. Nobody’s membership changes what the record says or how we report it.
Choose a planMembership buys support, not influence.
It’s a small valley: some members will be people we cover.
Members don’t change what the documents say, or buy a say in the story.
A member in office or in a filing is covered like anyone else.
Money can’t buy a place in a story. Ads are labeled.
Into the reporting: first keeping every story free, then paying the editor, then hiring three full-time reporters, each paid a living wage: about $99,000 a year in Teton County, by MIT’s count. Open Books shows the money as it comes in.
1Keep it free for everyone
$1,800 a month
The website, the newsletter, and the tools behind the reporting.
$21,600 a year · about 160 Lookouts or 80 Watchdogs · 160 people is 1% of Teton County
2Pay the editor
$8,467 a month
A full-time editor, paid to sit through the meetings, read the filings, and decide what the valley needs to know.
$101,600 a year · about 750 Lookouts or 350 Watchdogs · 750 people is 6% of Teton County
3Hire reporters
$41,667 a month
Three full-time reporters at a living wage, so more of the valley’s meetings, decisions, and records get covered. Advertising will carry part of it.
About $500,000 a year · about 3,700 Lookouts or 1,700 Watchdogs · 3,700 people is 30% of Teton County
No. The Valley Signal is a business, not a charity, published by Valley Signal LLC, an independent for-profit company. We saw an opening for sourced, factual local news that isn’t behind a paywall, and we think it’s worth keeping available and viable.
Not from us. This page and Open Books say how many members we have, not who they are. Your founding number is yours to share or not. A business or organization that pays us is the exception: Open Books names it, with the date and the amount.
One of the first 100 members. Founding members are numbered in the order they join, and the number is yours for good, even if you leave and come back. It’s a place in the Signal’s history, not a discount or a perk.
Membership, with no renewal. Paying $12 or more once makes you a member, and the first 100 members get founding numbers.
A better-informed valley, and a hand in making it. Stories stay free to read, members or not. We plan to add things only members get, and we’ll name them when they’re ready. That’s a goal, not a promise.
Open the membership portal with the email you joined with to update your card or cancel any time. To change your level, cancel and join again at the new one.
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