In case you missed this last week, here’s what we’d like for you to read and seriously consider, along with an update:

Really, what is BC worth to you?  Is it worth about a $1 an issue to support the only site on the web devoted exclusively to commentary, analysis and investigations affecting African Americans?  We know that for some of our readers, it is, and for that support, we are truly grateful.  But here’s where it gets difficult.  Generous support from only about 3% of our readers just isn’t enough to keep us going.

We’ve been to other websites; we know how they do things.  As a casual reader, you can read a summary of an article, but you have to pay to read the full thing.  Or, you can read some of the articles, but not all of them.  Or, you try to read an article, and have to click through a dozen pop-up ads, and watch little characters prance across your screen, advertising everything under the sun.  We really don’t want to do that to BC, which people tell us is a darned attractive site.  We remain committed to providing free access to those readers who find the BC Paid Subscription fee a burden, and we are adamant that we will never sell our free speech to Big Corporate Money.

So, what can we do to convince you that it’s worthwhile to become a BC Paid Subscriber?  Would you like us to offer shorter-term BC Paid Subscriptions, say 3-month and 6-month?  We have that in the works, but programming costs money, and we’re trying not to unnecessarily spend what little funds we have.  Would you like to read more readers’ comments?  Would you like to see a Book Review page?  Let us know, because the reality is, if we are not worth it to our readers to spend a little over $1 an issue, then we should go find something else to do.  It’s really as simple as that.  Or, are we already doing enough, and you keep meaning to become a BC Paid Subscriber, but something else always seems to come up just as you’re about to go to the Sign Up Page?  Well, stop procrastinating!  Please.

Here’s a little graphic to show you where we are on the survival scale:

We need 20% of our readers to be BC Paid Subscribers in order for us to survive.  Beyond that, we can begin the outreach plans we have to decrease the “Digital Divide” in under-served, economically-strapped areas.  We dream of that, but our reality is that we either reach the 20% by the end of 2006, or we don’t continue to publish beyond the end of the last BC Paid Subscription.  It’s simple economics, and the BC Readers will determine which way BC goes – onward, or out.

Update – Here’s this week’s graph:

We welcomed 40 new BC Paid Subscribers this past week.  Thank you to those who went to the Sign Up page and became BC Paid Subscribers.  And an additional thank you to those who also became BC Contributors. 

Moving .16% on the graph certainly shows the challenge we face.  Will you help BC?