Editor's note: MinnPost reaches 1,000 members

A week before our 10-month anniversary, MinnPost is proud to announce that we have passed the 1,000-member mark.

MinnPost.com is free to everyone, and you can get a daily email alert from us for no charge as well. But we depend on the voluntary financial support of paying members to defray part of the cost of running this not-for-profit enterprise. I'm excited that as of this morning, 1,003 of our readers have already signed on to support our high-quality journalism for people who care about Minnesota.

Members donate anywhere from $10 a year to $10,000 a year. Most donations are $50 or $100, but the average donation exceeds $225 because some donors give $1,000 or more. All donations are fully tax-deductible. You can become a member here.

In addition to membership, MinnPost revenue comes from advertising, sponsorship, major startup donations and foundation grants.  Most local startup websites operate on small budgets, but from the beginning, MinnPost was committed to paying experienced professional journalists to do really strong reporting and analysis of Minnesota stories.  This is expensive, and we still have to prove that we can generate enough revenue to be sustainable long-term. The next 1,000 members will make a huge difference.

Two weeks ago, when MinnPost had 951 members, we announced that anyone who joined by Aug. 31 would be entered in a drawing for two tickets to "Il Trovatore" at the Minnesota Opera.  The winner of the tickets is Dawn Johnson of Oakdale.

Joel Kramer is CEO and editor of MinnPost.com. He can be reached at jkramer [at] minnpost [dot] com.