Arissa Viering & Jonny Goodday, Co-Founders | 9/25/2020 | Goodday Mineral Wells | Goodday Palo Pinto County | Goodday Media Group | The Wishing Well of Mineral Wells | Team Updates | Letters from the Editor
To the citizens of Mineral Wells and all of Palo Pinto County:
Tomorrow, our company, Goodday Mineral Wells, reaches its ninety-day milestone and we couldn’t be more appreciative of all of the support that we have received from the community.
Real talk – starting a news and media company is no small feat. Jonny and I have overcome so many challenges and there has not been one, single day that we have not taken time to study or learn something new about our new careers. At first, we started out providing the news while working two other full-time positions. It wasn’t easy, but the all-nighters, sixteen-hour days, and results were well worth it; Mineral Wells was worth it.
If you would have told us ninety days ago that we would be doing a ribbon-cutting with the Chamber of Commerce or quitting our full-time jobs to solely cover the news, we wouldn’t have thought it was financially possible. Yet, here we are.
We fell in love with the community and we simply couldn’t give up on what we had started. So, where are we now? What are the results?
A few weeks ago, we were approached by key-leaders within the Palo Pinto County community that wished for us to expand our coverage and we are proud to say that we are doing just that.
This Sunday, September 27th, 2020, Goodday Mineral Wells will begin coverage of all of Palo Pinto County. Throughout this weekend, we will be performing several site upgrades to allow for this to happen. On Sunday, an e-newsletter shall be provided for all of Palo Pinto County. This newsletter, along with our online publication will continue to grow to include important news updates for the entire county. However, this is not the only good news that we have to report to you all today.
Today, we have officially began the process of a very important partnership with the Institute for Non-Profit News (INN). The INN’s mission is to “strengthen and support independent news organizations in a new kind of media network: nonprofit, nonpartisan, and dedicated to public service.” We have started the process to create the Goodday Palo Pinto County Foundation. This foundation will be non-profit and will provide print news to all of Palo Pinto County without advertisements. We are also starting a new program called The Goodday Club. This program will create internships and scholarships for aspiring photographers, journalists, writers, and marketers at MWISD and Community Christian School. We have been waiting for quite some time to officially announce this and are so glad to be able to move forward with these programs after much consultation with many professionals.
All of these achievements could not be done without our entire team. Because we recognize the importance of community, teamwork, and collaboration, we have added a new team member: Megan Hudson.
Megan will serve as the Board Secretary for Goodday Palo Pinto County and as a contributing journalist. She is experienced in marketing, public relations, and event planning. She is a Chamber Ambassador, a member of rotary international, and a graduate of Leadership Mineral Wells. After graduating from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, Megan returned to Mineral Wells to raise her two children. Megan has a passion for volunteering and helping the Mineral Wells area thrive.
Our greatest hope is to provide accessible, accurate news to all of Palo Pinto County and we shall be working around the clock in the coming weeks to ensure that all steps needed to create a newspaper are followed, along with continuing to increase coverage of the Palo Pinto area.
We thank you for your support and, if you are able, we humbly ask for contributions to our crowdfund. If you are able to help with our start-up costs, we would be so thankful. We are solely self-funded and crowdfunded until we are able to complete the process for our fiscal sponsorship, INN membership, and non-profit 501(c)(3) status. We are $3750 away from this goal. We are still able to accept advertisers for Goodday Mineral Wells online.
We thank you all so much for your support and we look forward to serving all of Palo Pinto.
-Arissa Viering
Former Co-Founder | June 2020-Nov 2020 | Graduate of Texas Christian University with a background in medical anthropology, psychology, and creative writing. Passionate about writing novels. Loved the Mineral Wells community and all that it had offered her and her family.
