To: EPOC <EPOC_NEWS@topica.com>
From: Zorro <kidshelp@ICAN.NET>
Subject: [EPOC_NEWS] Direct Appeal from Donna Laframboise
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:03:11 -0400
Reply-To: EPOC_NEWS@topica.com
__________________________________________________________________
EPOC_NEWS: The Canadian list for people who support the idea that
kids need both parents, especially after separation and divorce.
__________________________________________________________________
You may like to try sending an encouraging message to Donna at her old
address at The Post.
Writers are usually let go with telephone and e-mail address access for some
time
after separation as part of severance packages.
dlaframboise@nationalpost.com
I'd suggest that we give it a try for at least one year. For that kind of
money,
it appears worth it keeping this journalist writing and doing useful
research, which
she knows how to get in no time.
Regards, Zorro
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>From Donna Laframboise: [Next]
Dear readers,
On Sept. 17, I was among 130 employees of The National Post relieved of duty
due to budget constraints. Since then, a number of you have expressed
interest in continuing to read my weekly columns. However, given the
politically-incorrect flavor of my work, few newspapers are likely to hire
me.
I need to decide whether to remain a journalist or to pursue another line of
work. In theory, the Internet gives me a new option: online commentator. For
many readers, especially those outside
presence. (Some of my columns are still available at The Post's web site by
selecting my name in the second list.)
Because a newspaper is no longer compensating me for the time it takes to
research and write my column, the rent money has to come from elsewhere. The
online commentator model is similar to the one employed by public television
stations. Without funds raised directly from viewers, these stations
wouldn't exist.
Many people have told me they consider my writing a breath of fresh air. The
question is whether a year of fresh air is worth the price of a music CD. I
don't know the answer to that question, but this is my attempt to find out.
My proposal is a modest one. Whereas some Post writers earn $750 per column,
I am proposing to write a weekly online column for $600 dollars Canadian
(see U.S. dollar equivalents). This means I would be paid, over the course
of a year, $31,200 for two days work per week. I am therefore
in search of:
3,120 readers willing to send me a $10 cheque or
2,080 people willing to send me a $15 cheque or
some combination of the above
At $10 a year, each weekly column will cost a reader 20 cents
Here's your chance to be an online pioneer.If you think my voice, as a
weekly columnist, is worth 20 cents a week, please send me a cheque and urge
your friends to do the same. If, by 5 January 2002, I have raised 1/3 of a
year's pay, I will commence writing a weekly column that will appear on this
web site. The column:
will be 750 - 1,500 words long (standard newspaper length is 700-850)
will appear every Tuesday morning by 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and
will be of the same high quality that characterized my weekly 1992-1996
Toronto Star columns as well as my more recent National Post columns
Because a column is a contribution to a broader debate, these pieces will be
available to everyone visiting the web site. This means people who send me a
cheque will be subsidizing non-payers in the same way those who send money
to public television stations subsidize viewers who watch for free. (It's
not about whether everyone pays. It's about whether enough people are
willing to pay to make this a viable use of my time.)
My address is:
Donna Laframboise
M4K 1P1
Other things you should know (the fine print):
I will cash the cheques shortly after they arrive and deposit them in a
separate bank account
I will post the accumulated totals on this web site each Friday beginning 9
Nov. through to 5 January 2002
if, by 5 January, the goal of 1/3 of a year's pay ($10,400 Cdn./$6,900
in such an event, I will not be able to refund your money due to the costs
associated with mailing potentially hundreds of cheques in more than once
currency back to more than one country
instead, the money raised will be divided equally between two charities,
the American Red Cross and ABC
this website the receipts received from these groups
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
If we meet our 1/3 goal by 5 January:
we will need to continue recruiting new paying readers prior to the end of
March 2002
on each Friday during February and March, I will post the accumulated
totals of new money received
should these funds not add up the remaining 2/3rds ($20,800 Cdn./$13,900
US) by Friday 29 March 2002, the money raised between 5 January and 29 March
will be divided between the two charities, as above, and I will stop writing
the column
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Should we make it through the first year successfully, I will pursue
creditcard or e-payment options for 2003
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