The Monroe Gazette Is Dead
The (new) Monroe Gazette is an email newsletter (which you’re reading) that borrowed its name from the original, which was a newspaper published in Monroe, New York, from 1908 to 1982. New stories are released at least once per week.
About BJ Mendelson
The newsletter is written and edited by B.J. Mendelson, a journalist, and author of such books as Social Media Is Bullshit from St. Martin’s Press, Privacy: And How We Get It Back from Curious Reads — which became The End of Privacy on Audible — and a new book currently in development. BJ has also ghostwritten two books, one of which became a bestseller in its category on Amazon.
This newsletter covers local news in New York’s Orange County — with an extra focus on the Towns and Villages of Monroe and Woodbury — and politics on the State level.
How To Send Us News & Get In Touch
B.J. can be reached by email at BJMendelson@Duck.com
You can anonymously send stories and news tips using Signal by sending them to bjmendelson.32
Unless you have a ProtonMail account, please only send us news and other information using Signal. This is to protect your safety and anonymity, as well as ours.
If you’re unfamiliar with Signal, here’s how to get it.
And if you’re unfamiliar with ProtonMail, here’s how to get that too.
Both are free.
Don’t Forget to Whitelist MonroeGazette@substack.com
Every email provider is different, but if you want to make sure you’re getting The Monroe Gazette delivered straight to your inbox, make sure to whitelist our email: MonroeGazette@Substack.com
Directions on how to Whitelist an email address can be found here.
Subscribe to The Podcast on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
Note: You have to be a paid subscriber in order to access these feeds.
I Like This New Monroe Gazette. How Can I Support It?
The Monroe Gazette is a free email newsletter. But …
We aim to find 700 annual subscribers who want to support our work. (That equals out to $67,200 a year or just about the average annual salary for most Americans.)
Don’t get too excited. I need to buy health insurance, and I am the primary financial provider for three disabled adults. So. It sounds like a lot of money, but I assure you it’s not in this situation.
We have well over 700 free subscribers. So, if I can convince 700 of you to convert to an annual paid subscription, or renew your annual subscription when it comes due, I can continue doing this.
Does that sound like you?
If so, you can become an annual paid subscriber for $120. This sounds like a lot, but in Orange County, Straus News is constantly asking for money on the front page of their newspapers (The Photo-News, The Chronicle, The Warwick Advertiser, ect.) These are not tax deductible, yet they refer to them as donations. $150 is not even the highest they’re asking people for.
So.
$120 for an annual subscription to support local, independent journalism when this rag is publishing stuff like this, and this, and this?
Yeah. I’m ok with that price point.
What Paid Subscribers Don’t Get:
-Refunds. All sales are final.
What Paid Subscribers Do Get:
Access to our archive, which goes behind a paywall after 90 days.
Ability to comment on our stories.
An Ad-Free Podcast to enjoy, featuring audio editions of each new post. (This is currently on hiatus until I finish my book. They will return in April!)
Access to our subscriber-only Facebook group. We often post news items here throughout the week that we don’t often have time to write up.* In the future we may add local event listings here.
Support local, independent journalism. Help me pay the rent.
Other subscriber benefits may follow, but that’s it for now.
*We reserve the right to reject someone from entering the Facebook group. Especially if there’s proof of them being a disruptive presence in other local Facebook groups. We’ve thankfully only had to do this twice, but it does happen.
One Last Thing …
A lot of people get their local news from Facebook and Facebook Groups like Monroe Matters and Families of Woodbury. We do not recommend these groups or others like them. Many are filled with bots and trolls, and often the group administrators have agendas. Or they actively suppress bad news about people they like. If you’re a Monroe, Chester, Blooming Grove, or Woodbury resident, and you are looking for a free place to get news and information, we recommend you leave all other local groups and instead join us at Southern Orange County United.
