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Tripoli, 10 April 2014:
Since it began, just over two years and 7,100 stories ago, the Libya Herald has relied on the poorly-paid enthusiasm . . .[restrict]of its writers and editors and the support of a small group of faithful advertisers. We certainly do not have any rich backers.
We set out to be the key reliable source of information about Libya . Our reader-profile — we now average 1.3 million hits a day — would seem to demonstrate how well we have achieved this.
From the outset we wanted to be a free service. We expected to be able to support our growth through advertising revenue as the economy and the security situation settled down. Though Libya’s private sector has made remarkable progress, real across-the-board growth has been inhibited by a failure to take the gunmen off the streets and the establishment of the rule of law, backed by a strong and popularly-endorsed constitution.
This disastrous state of affairs will end, but only a fool would pretend to know when.
The Libya Herald is not giving up on it coverage of the painful and sometimes bloody rebirth of a Free Libya. However we need income to continue our work.
Therefore with very considerable reluctance, we are introducing a subscription.
Readers will still be able to see most Libya news and local news stories for 48 hours from the time of posting them, but for the rest of our content, not least our now substantial archive, it will be necessary to subscribe.
We are really sorry for this. We look forward to a time, hopefully soon, when we can revert to our free offering, supported by healthy flows of advertising.
To those of our readers who are unhappy at the change, we apologise. We are unhappy ourselves. But the alternative to introducing a subscription was no Libya Herald at all in the not too distant future. Take your pick.
We hope many of our readers will agree that our modest subscription, amounting to LD 2 a day is a price worth paying to receive an ever-widening coverage of Libya and the Libyan people at this pivotal moment in the nation’s history. [/restrict]
