DISPATCH FROM THE BIRD CAGE
9 out of 10 parrots don’t complain if you line their cages with The Key West Shitizen. The 10th requests the classifieds — or the comics — and then wants reciepts.
If you’re reading this, congratulations — you already know more about what’s happening in Key West than someone relying on The Key West Citizen (or Keys News or whatever their current iteration is,) which usually arrives a couple of days late, if at all, like a sunburnt cormorant with a majua addiction and commitment issues.
And yes, if you didn’t notice over the holidays, The Citizen quietly slashed its prices, suddenly discovering the radical Substack-era idea that journalism should cost roughly what independent writers like me — have been charging all along.
I am not asking you to support me.
Support award winning journalist Gwen Filosa.
I don’t care.
Support anybody.
Do something.
She and I charge the same. And arguably, there are things she does better.
Like spell. And grammar.
And I was told there would be no math.
Just support local journalism with institutional knowledge.
The big boys are scared.
And miracles happen.
Prices are restructured, usually right after circulation collapses.
Mine are not changing.
Want to see how bad things are for The Key West Citizen?
Very sneaky way to say you have less subscribers than us Substackers.
Meanwhile, here at Above the Fold, we don’t recycle press releases — we produce news — and it isn’t always free bubble up and rainbow stew.
But here is the upside.
Nine out of ten parrots don’t complain if you line their cages with The Citizen.
The tenth one files a public records request, demands receipts and requests the classified section.
Or maybe the comics.
And is angry of the paper isn’t delivered at all.
Your subscription keeps this thing alive — the reporting, the records requests, the long meetings, the uncomfortable questions, and the kind of local accountability that makes certain people very nervous and very quiet.
No hedge funds.
No ghost editors.
No tourism bureau copy word salad.
Just journalism, purifying sunlight, and a few very opinionated birds perched in a mango tree, watching City Hall like it owes them money.
Subscribe.
Share it.
Squawk.
Come on. It’s $8 a month (less than the cost of a mixed drink at The Tree Bar with Terri) or $80 a year.
Why support the paper that never comes when you can support the reporter that breaks the news?
Because in Key West, if you’re not paying attention, someone else is — and they’re counting on the parrots, iguanas or chickens to distract you.
Receipts