Thank you for your valued and continued support of local news in Fresno

During these uncertain and unprecedented times, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting The Fresno Bee.

Thank you to our subscribers.

Thank you to our advertising partners.

Thank you to the generous donors contributing to our donor-funded initiatives — the Education Lab and Fresnoland Lab.

This direct investment in local journalism helps support our efforts to keep our community informed, hold public officials accountable and facilitate community dialogue. The Fresno Bee published more than 800 stories in March related to the coronavirus crisis. Reliable and accurate information has never been more vital to ensure our readers can make critical decisions for themselves and their families.

As a public service, The Bee lowered the paywall on coronavirus updates and breaking news, making this important information available for free. Traffic to our news site, fresnobee.com, has increased dramatically. Unfortunately, the economic impacts resulting from the coronavirus crisis are putting significant pressure on advertising revenues.

As we move through this crisis and project ahead to the long road of recovery, we remain committed to providing reliable and accurate in-depth reporting the community can rely on. But we need your help.

If you are not yet a subscriber, please consider supporting local journalism with a subscription. As a subscriber you will have full access to all of our content, including the eEdition, an electronic replica of the print newspaper with 40 to 50 pages of extra content, the most up-to-date info on fresnobee.com and access to our various email newsletter options to help keep you informed.

To subscribe please visit fresnobee.com/subscribe.

If you are an advertiser, please consider the team at The Fresno Bee to assist with your needs. The Fresno Bee and McClatchy have extensive resources to help you develop a strategy and design campaigns that deliver results. Our talented team will help you conceive and execute your search, social media and content marketing strategies. Most importantly, our team is focused on your success. Your advertising investments will also help support critically needed local journalism.

For Advertising questions please email Paco Villarreal at pvillarreal@fresnobee.com.

Lastly, please consider a donation to support local reporters through the Report For America (RFA) initiative. RFA is a 501c3 with a goal to place 1,000 journalists in local newsrooms throughout the country. This initiative offers matching funds for the reporter’s salary. We currently have one RFA reporter on staff, Manuela Tobias, who is focused on poverty and the coronavirus impacts on underserved members of our community. This reporting position is made possible by the additional support provided by CalMatters.

We have the opportunity to add a second RFA reporter to The Fresno Bee newsroom this June. RFA will fund half of this reporter’s salary. We are looking for assistance to fund the other half. This reporter will bring much needed help in our efforts to continue the important coverage around the coronavirus pandemic and the recovery.

You can donate at http://bitly.com/FresnoBeeRFA to support this effort.

Thank you for your support and please stay safe.

This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 10:51 AM.