From Tim: Friends, this is urgent

Dear Readers, 

We are reaching out again because we are not making our year-end goals—in fact, we are still about $20,000 short. That means we can't afford to pay the writers who bring you the breaking news, investigative reporting, and cutting-edge cultural criticism that we offer, free, every day.

It also means we will have to significantly scale back our voice and reach in 2026—an extremely consequential election year with contests that can determine the fate of the Bay Area. Our independent coverage is an essential guide to the issues that directly effect living here, and we're relying on you to help us continue.

Our democracy is under serious threat, and many major media outlets are caving, doing Trump's bidding. Most are now owned by billionaires or giant corporations that care more about the short-term bottom line than about saving this country.

Democracy can't survive without reporters—and local democracy can't survive without local reporters. That's why we're here: Because people need to know the truth about how our city is run.

We give you The Agenda every Monday, a guide to the major political events you need to know about for the coming week. We cover stories that don't get the same attention from the other news media. We go behind the obvious headlines and tell you what's really happening. We investigate and break big stories.

We have published more than 10,000 vital and diverse cultural reviews, previews, and interviews at a time when outlets are turning their backs on local arts, the soul of our city. At our fall fundraising gala, former Sup. Dean Preston put it simply: "I don't know what San Francisco would do without 48hills."

As we said, we are still $15,000 short of our goal. Please, donate what you can—or even better, sign up as a monthly sustaining donor.

Not long ago, a friend asked me if I was ever planning to retire. I told them I'd love to retire—but nobody else is doing this work. Please: Help me keep it going.

Thanks for all you do,

Tim Redmond