The Panama News is, in a certain sense, a micro-enterprise owned by Eric Jackson. Given Panama's laws about foundations and non-profit organizations, the aim of providing a source of information about Panama that's independent of the political parties, the powerful families and the government, and the tiny amount of money that flows through the organization, it would be hard for it to be anything else.

But The Panama News is also a public service, much like National Public Radio and the public television stations in the United States. It's a service that has always been provided free to our readers --- whether in our initial years as a free distribution tabloid, or in our current incarnation as a website, and in our hopes to return to print publication in 2005, our tenth anniversary year --- but one that has never been profitable, with the possible exception of an Arthur Andersen or Mireya Moscoso-style accounting. Thus, like the public radio and TV stations in the United States, we conduct fundraising months twice every year.

However, donations of money, as welcome and necessary as they are and have been, are by no means our readers' only form of support for this cause. We have been kept in publication since our nightmarish early 2001 retreat from print publication and our old Via Argentina offices by many sorts of in-kind contributions. Many of the articles, columns and photos that have appeared in this newspaper have been contributed by people whose aim was to inform people via their community newspaper, without expectation of payment. (Some of the other contributors work on a barter system, in exchange for advertising space.) Many of our dining columns are the result of the editor being treated to breakfast, lunch or dinner by readers. A lot of the news gathering and general business of The Panama News has been done over a cell phone that has frequently been activated with donated BellSouth cell phone cards. Especially during times of computer problems, we have produced The Panama News on other people's machines. Almost all of our photos are scanned on computers whose use has been donated to us. Some of those photos have been taken on rolls of film that readers have donated.

We get by with a little help from a lot of friends, and a lot of help from a few people.

We always want and need money contributions, but there are many other ways that you can help. These are some of the most important things that you can donate to keep your community newspaper, The Panama News, in publication:


• Your articles, photos, opinion columns and letters. Also, your ideas and tips about things that you think we ought to cover.

• A backup computer for our ancient Power Macintosh 7200/75, either PC or Mac, or parts, accessories or programs to go with these computers. On the PC platform that we would like to acquire, we are thinking in terms of avoiding Bill Gates's software monopoly by installing Linux programs. A new computer/monitor with bundled-in software (given the state of things, probably Microsoft's programs) would be another way to boost our production capacities and still keep us on the legal side of the copyright laws.

• Photographic equipment. A new digital camera tops our wish list. Lenses --- especially telephoto and zoom --- that fit standard Pentax 35 mm cameras are also needed. We can always use rolls of 35 mm film. We need a new flash for our Pentax.

• BellSouth cell phone cards to keep our communications links up. Moreover, we'd like to have another cell phone to keep our messenger Chase in constant communication.

• Ink cartridges, both black and color, for our Espson Stylus Color 740i printer.

• Transportation or lodging for trips outside of the Panama City - Colon metro area, where we don't go as often as we should due to economic constraints, a situation that hinders our efforts to cover all of Panama the way that we'd like to do.


If you can contribute these or other things to the cause of maintaining and improving your community's online newspaper, The Panama News, contact us: