By QUINTON SMITH/Lincoln Chronicle

For the past three years we’ve offered a look at the past and our plans for the future. This is our annual report to readers for 2025 – the thousands of you who read us daily, the many hundreds who donate monthly or yearly to fund our operations and a glimpse into goals for 2026.

In 2025 we completed our seventh year of operations and made substantial changes.

YachatsNews launched in 2019 as a personal service project, in 2022 became a 501c3 nonprofit and hired our first employee, and in 2025 made a big transition to Lincoln Chronicle.

Our stated goal the past three years is “To do more and better.” I think we continued that in 2025, but you are the ultimate judge.

There were three major developments in 2025.

First: We were intentional in our 2024 fundraising – all money raised would be set aside to support the hiring of a full-time Newport-based reporter in 2025. Shayla Escudero joined us in March 2025 and now reports on Lincoln County, schools, social services, the city of Newport and any other big news of the day in that area.

Garret Jaros, who joined us in 2023, continues to cover south Lincoln County, including the cities of Yachats and Waldport, local fire districts, natural resources and any breaking news.

Second: The same month that Escudero came aboard, we changed the name of our website from YachatsNews to Lincoln Chronicle to better reflect our broader reach. (Our legal name for federal and state purposes is YachatsNews doing business as Lincoln Chronicle. We are a 501c3 nonprofit and our federal EIN is: 92-032473.)

Third: In October we redesigned our website to modernize it, making it cleaner, crisper and better organized and switched hosting services to make the site more reliable. We also added new content — the “A Picture Tells the Story” feature, a coastal events calendar purchased from Oregon Coast Today, and a real estate section that we subscribe to that lists every residential property sale in Lincoln County.

These additions and changes come at substantial cost. The rebranding effort in the spring and website change in the fall cost more than $12,000, which we covered via one-time restricted-use grants from the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County and the Roundhouse Foundation of Sisters.

The measurements

As in past years, in 2025 we posted 100-120 stories a month. Since 2019 we have posted almost 8,000 stories.

Readership is measured in “page views.” The website had more than 2.2 million page views in 2025, averaging nearly 200,000 a month.

Some stories that “go viral” can lead to large increases in page views. Stories in October and November about the potential of an immigration detention facility in Newport and the abrupt bankruptcy of Rogue Ales & Spirits pushed our 30-day running page view total to more than 380,000.

More than 3,000 readers are signed up to receive an email of story summaries each Wednesday and Friday mornings. If you want to sign up, go here. But remember, we are a 24/7 news website with new or updated stories 5-6 days a week. Simply go to www.LincolnChronicle.org on your web browser.

The money

Lincoln Chronicle has three main sources of income for its operations – donations from readers, advertising, and grants from foundations.

Monthly donations: There are 135 readers who donate $5 to $100 a month via PayPal or an automated check writing service from their bank or investment account. Those total about $1,800 a month or $21,600 a year.

Twice-yearly campaign: We conduct an annual reader donation drive each June and an end-of-the-year campaign in December. In 2025, supporters donated $40,000 in June and $34,000 in December.

Stock contributions: We started a program in 2025 to accept stock as a charitable contribution and have received one substantial donation which we are holding as a “break glass in an emergency” fund. Contact me if you are interested in this donation method.

Advertising: As we expand and improve, we are also seeing a growth in advertising, including more public notices from local governments and for the first time ads from attorneys, real estate agents and credit unions/banks. Our net advertising revenue in 2025 was $15,500.

Grants: As mentioned previously, we received “restricted” grants from the EDALC and Roundhouse to pay for rebranding and the new website. We also received one-time support from the city of Yachats’ nonprofit grant program to help fund our three freelance reporters and have $5,000 multi-year operating grants from Roundhouse and the Marie Lamfrom Charitable foundations.

The expenses

As expected, our expenses rose significantly in 2025 with the addition of a second reporter and with the purchased content we added in the fall after our redesign.

Our employee salaries, insurance and taxes totaled $126,500 in 2025. We also spent $24,400 on contract services for everything from freelance reporting help to bookkeeping services to web maintenance. Other general operational costs – everything from subscriptions to fees to insurance — totaled $7,600.

Because of significant, one-time expenses associated with our name change, redesign and rebranding, our total expenses in 2025 were $187,000.

We are still finalizing our 2026 budget, but our expenses should be about the same — $185,000 — this year.

Even with the increase in expenses in 2025 and 2026, the Lincoln Chronicle is in reasonably good financial shape to support its current operations with some savings as a reserve. But the pace of spending, of course, puts extra pressure on fundraising and advertising sales.

Our formal IRS Form 990 financial statement will be posted on various charitable organization websites by mid-May.

The partnerships

Collaboration – not necessarily competition — is important among small media operations these days. In addition to purchasing its calendar, we have a content sharing agreement with Oregon Coast Today to provide weekly entertainment stories. We also have news partnerships with the Oregon Capital Chronicle, KLCC News, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon ArtsWatch, The Oregonian/OregonLive, the Oregon Journalism Project and others.

They, in turn, they have full access to our stories should they wish to publish them.

All of this is intended to bring you a more well-rounded glimpse at our region and the state.

People occasionally ask if we will ever begin charging for subscriptions or put our content behind a pay wall. There is no intention to do that. As a nonprofit we believe it is important to have our content free to readers.

The plans, help and mission

After major changes in 2025, our plan is to have a calmer 2026. Still there are some smaller efforts in the works.

• We’ve started contracting for editing help with Lynne Terry, an experienced journalist who has reported and edited for The Oregonian, The Lund Report and the Oregon Capital Chronicle;
• We just concluded helping a University of Oregon School of Journalism project studying information needs and patterns in Lincoln County. Their report should be available to publish in April;
• With increasing expenses, the Chronicle must increase its advertising revenue. If you own a business and want the chance to reach 2,500 to 10,000 curious Lincoln County residents a day, please contact me at [email protected] or our advertising director Tiffany Sullivan at [email protected];
• While we do receive support from the Roundhouse and Lamfrom foundations, we expect less help – for whatever their reasons — from Oregon foundations in 2026. We will need to make up that gap somewhere somehow.
• We will continue to ask for donations from readers and supporters without wearing you out. This is a delicate balancing act – our bills are unrelenting, but so are financial pressures on many of you. There are also other deserving nonprofits seeking your support. If you gave in June or December 2025, please consider giving again this year. If you are new to us, please use this annual report – and our daily reporting — to become a monthly donor or make a once-a-year contribution.

If you want to support us, you can:

• Write a check and drop it into the mail to Lincoln Chronicle, P.O Box 284, Yachats, Ore. 97498;
• Use the “Donate” button on the website to become a monthly donor or make a one-time contribution through PayPal;
• Advertise your business or organization on the site. Here is a link to rates and how to get that process started.

I will end with a reminder of our mission statement:

“To provide locally reported, fair, unbiased straightforward news of Lincoln County, its communities, governments, people, community organizations, businesses, and the natural environment with an emphasis on good government, transparency, community involvement, civic participation and engagement. We are an independent, non-profit news service. Free to all, funded by readers.”

— Quinton Smith/editor & board chair

By QUINTON SMITH/Lincoln Chronicle

For the past three years we’ve offered a look at the past and our plans for the future. This is our annual report to readers for 2025 – the thousands of you who read us daily, the many hundreds who donate monthly or yearly to fund our operations and a glimpse into goals for 2026.

In 2025 we completed our seventh year of operations and made substantial changes.

YachatsNews launched in 2019 as a personal service project, in 2022 became a 501c3 nonprofit and hired our first employee, and in 2025 made a big transition to Lincoln Chronicle.

Our stated goal the past three years is “To do more and better.” I think we continued that in 2025, but you are the ultimate judge.

There were three major developments in 2025.

First: We were intentional in our 2024 fundraising – all money raised would be set aside to support the hiring of a full-time Newport-based reporter in 2025. Shayla Escudero joined us in March 2025 and now reports on Lincoln County, schools, social services, the city of Newport and any other big news of the day in that area.

Garret Jaros, who joined us in 2023, continues to cover south Lincoln County, including the cities of Yachats and Waldport, local fire districts, natural resources and any breaking news.

Second: The same month that Escudero came aboard, we changed the name of our website from YachatsNews to Lincoln Chronicle to better reflect our broader reach. (Our legal name for federal and state purposes is YachatsNews doing business as Lincoln Chronicle. We are a 501c3 nonprofit and our federal EIN is: 92-032473.)

Third: In October we redesigned our website to modernize it, making it cleaner, crisper and better organized and switched hosting services to make the site more reliable. We also added new content — the “A Picture Tells the Story” feature, a coastal events calendar purchased from Oregon Coast Today, and a real estate section that we subscribe to that lists every residential property sale in Lincoln County.

These additions and changes come at substantial cost. The rebranding effort in the spring and website change in the fall cost more than $12,000, which we covered via one-time restricted-use grants from the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County and the Roundhouse Foundation of Sisters.

The measurements

As in past years, in 2025 we posted 100-120 stories a month. Since 2019 we have posted almost 8,000 stories.

Readership is measured in “page views.” The website had more than 2.2 million page views in 2025, averaging nearly 200,000 a month.

Some stories that “go viral” can lead to large increases in page views. Stories in October and November about the potential of an immigration detention facility in Newport and the abrupt bankruptcy of Rogue Ales & Spirits pushed our 30-day running page view total to more than 380,000.

More than 3,000 readers are signed up to receive an email of story summaries each Wednesday and Friday mornings. If you want to sign up, go here. But remember, we are a 24/7 news website with new or updated stories 5-6 days a week. Simply go to www.LincolnChronicle.org on your web browser.

The money

Lincoln Chronicle has three main sources of income for its operations – donations from readers, advertising, and grants from foundations.

Monthly donations: There are 135 readers who donate $5 to $100 a month via PayPal or an automated check writing service from their bank or investment account. Those total about $1,800 a month or $21,600 a year.

Twice-yearly campaign: We conduct an annual reader donation drive each June and an end-of-the-year campaign in December. In 2025, supporters donated $40,000 in June and $34,000 in December.

Stock contributions: We started a program in 2025 to accept stock as a charitable contribution and have received one substantial donation which we are holding as a “break glass in an emergency” fund. Contact me if you are interested in this donation method.

Advertising: As we expand and improve, we are also seeing a growth in advertising, including more public notices from local governments and for the first time ads from attorneys, real estate agents and credit unions/banks. Our net advertising revenue in 2025 was $15,500.

Grants: As mentioned previously, we received “restricted” grants from the EDALC and Roundhouse to pay for rebranding and the new website. We also received one-time support from the city of Yachats’ nonprofit grant program to help fund our three freelance reporters and have $5,000 multi-year operating grants from Roundhouse and the Marie Lamfrom Charitable foundations.

The expenses

As expected, our expenses rose significantly in 2025 with the addition of a second reporter and with the purchased content we added in the fall after our redesign.

Our employee salaries, insurance and taxes totaled $126,500 in 2025. We also spent $24,400 on contract services for everything from freelance reporting help to bookkeeping services to web maintenance. Other general operational costs – everything from subscriptions to fees to insurance — totaled $7,600.

Because of significant, one-time expenses associated with our name change, redesign and rebranding, our total expenses in 2025 were $187,000.

We are still finalizing our 2026 budget, but our expenses should be about the same — $185,000 — this year.

Even with the increase in expenses in 2025 and 2026, the Lincoln Chronicle is in reasonably good financial shape to support its current operations with some savings as a reserve. But the pace of spending, of course, puts extra pressure on fundraising and advertising sales.

Our formal IRS Form 990 financial statement will be posted on various charitable organization websites by mid-May.

The partnerships

Collaboration – not necessarily competition — is important among small media operations these days. In addition to purchasing its calendar, we have a content sharing agreement with Oregon Coast Today to provide weekly entertainment stories. We also have news partnerships with the Oregon Capital Chronicle, KLCC News, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon ArtsWatch, The Oregonian/OregonLive, the Oregon Journalism Project and others.

They, in turn, they have full access to our stories should they wish to publish them.

All of this is intended to bring you a more well-rounded glimpse at our region and the state.

People occasionally ask if we will ever begin charging for subscriptions or put our content behind a pay wall. There is no intention to do that. As a nonprofit we believe it is important to have our content free to readers.

The plans, help and mission

After major changes in 2025, our plan is to have a calmer 2026. Still there are some smaller efforts in the works.

• We’ve started contracting for editing help with Lynne Terry, an experienced journalist who has reported and edited for The Oregonian, The Lund Report and the Oregon Capital Chronicle;
• We just concluded helping a University of Oregon School of Journalism project studying information needs and patterns in Lincoln County. Their report should be available to publish in April;
• With increasing expenses, the Chronicle must increase its advertising revenue. If you own a business and want the chance to reach 2,500 to 10,000 curious Lincoln County residents a day, please contact me at [email protected] or our advertising director Tiffany Sullivan at [email protected];
• While we do receive support from the Roundhouse and Lamfrom foundations, we expect less help – for whatever their reasons — from Oregon foundations in 2026. We will need to make up that gap somewhere somehow.
• We will continue to ask for donations from readers and supporters without wearing you out. This is a delicate balancing act – our bills are unrelenting, but so are financial pressures on many of you. There are also other deserving nonprofits seeking your support. If you gave in June or December 2025, please consider giving again this year. If you are new to us, please use this annual report – and our daily reporting — to become a monthly donor or make a once-a-year contribution.

If you want to support us, you can:

• Write a check and drop it into the mail to Lincoln Chronicle, P.O Box 284, Yachats, Ore. 97498;
• Use the “Donate” button on the website to become a monthly donor or make a one-time contribution through PayPal;
• Advertise your business or organization on the site. Here is a link to rates and how to get that process started.

I will end with a reminder of our mission statement:

“To provide locally reported, fair, unbiased straightforward news of Lincoln County, its communities, governments, people, community organizations, businesses, and the natural environment with an emphasis on good government, transparency, community involvement, civic participation and engagement. We are an independent, non-profit news service. Free to all, funded by readers.”

— Quinton Smith/editor & board chair