The Elberta Alert Reboot Turns 15

It started with a community meeting in the former Elberta Library, convened with a question on a flyer: “What Do You Want From a Community Newspaper?” We got together and talked about it.

The result was printed in black-and-white on 100% recycled paper and was hand-delivered door-to-door in the Village by a team of volunteers. We had some by-mail subscribers, some as far away as California, and with print costs and postage and unpaid labor, it (almost) broke even.

We all came together, readers and contributors and reader-editors, because we cared about this place, and there was stuff going on that wasn’t being covered in other news outlets: specifically, a weird limbo with a waterfront developer, a Village financial crisis, and worries about how to protect the natural beauty of our beach. But we also wanted to show off the wonderful, quirky, manic pixie dream that is Elberta, which maybe can’t be captured in words or pictures. Maybe if we could collect as many histories and herstories as possible, we could get close.

The person who designed the original masthead logo is now the president of the Village. The person who did ad sales is now slinging digital platters as the Tunesmith on 100.1 LPFM, the new radio station. The Village is no longer in a financial crisis, and in fact is financially healthy. The beach public area is revamped, and much less easy to drive a monster truck through. The waterfront will be a nature preserve, a park, and a new development, with substantial community input. We have a lot to celebrate.

It’s been fun and also challenging to document these changes. I miss the team spirit of the Alert’s early days on paper. Things got rough for me financially and, I have to admit, personally, and stuff moved to the website and then kind of fell off completely. Then the rebirth had another reboot after I joined council and discovered Substack, which is … so easy. But Substack life is somewhat grim. In addition to its Nazi problem, I’ve noticed lately a rise in suspiciously nonhuman-seeming “followers” and likes on older posts. Hmmmm. Is the content being scraped by bots? It’s enough to make a gal start printing again…. I’m getting ideas.

Thanks to everyone who has subscribed. Big, big thanks to everyone who has become a paid subscriber, especially since you are getting nothing extra for it except the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping out. And most of all, thank you to everyone who actually reads this stuff. I am still surprised and delighted when people read. We are our tribe. Long live Elberta!

Some stats for the curious:

• Total subscribers: 558
• Paid subscribers: 54
• Annualized revenue: $3,369 (from $510 on 7/26/2022)

As mentioned in the February council report, the Village of Benzonia is looking for a part-time clerk and a planning commission member. They are also looking for a council member to fill a partial term through 2028. Details are on their website.