Annual Online Subscription Donation Appeal

Dear The Dili Weekly reader,

Yes! www.thediliweekly.on is a FREE online bi-lingual (English and Tetun) news service.

We strongly believe that even though we are very new to this medium online that the kind of news service we provide is invaluable for all those Timorese studying/living abroad (and also within Timor-Leste), as well as mala’e (non-Timorese) with an interest in Timor-Leste.

Here at The Dili Weekly, we strive to be the “best” under very difficult working conditions. We also strive to be very independent and aware of affiliates to public or private entities.

Prior to going live with the website we pondered how we would be able to make our news service FREE and at the same time sustainable and keep going well into the future. We are committed to being here to stay. One option presented to us was to ask our readers to pay for a subscription online in order to be able to read us. We thought about it but very quickly decided against it because it would defeat the purposed of wanting to increase general awareness about Timor issues. We wanted to make our news available free online so that anyone with an internet connection, anywhere, at any time (day or night) can come in and access our news.

This is where it gets tricky, because we are not a big organization and we do not have funding for what we try to do. We do it for the passion we have for the news and genuinely wanting to keep audiences informed about our reality inside the country to those with an interest outside.

So we decided to ask, with no expectations, but if readers like our news service that they donate a yearly subscription to allows us to be self-sustainable and continue to provide our services to the community online for free.

A yearly subscription of The Dili Weekly normally costs USD$48, the equivalent to 48 print issues of the newspaper annually if you were living in Timor-Leste. We will accept more than one donated annual subscription per individual or organization. We will of course accept donations of any value.

Here are some of the things your donated funds will help us cover:

• The Dili Weekly website maintenance fee;
• The internet costs so that we can keep uploading content onto the site;
• To purchase more essential equipment (including access to internet) and improve our logistics so we can reach more readers locally and internationally;
• This will contribute to a pay increase for The Dili Weekly Staff as well as other benefits and allowances;
• It will allow us to expand our presence to the main district capitals of Timor-Leste (Baucau, Oe-cusse, Ainaro, Ermera and Suai); and increase our news coverage in less covered areas;
• It will allow to secure and buy some land in Timor-Leste and build our permanent office;

But essentially this will allow us to think bigger and better in terms of what we can continue to offer our society and our readers.

Thank you in advance for your support. I am happy to share my ideas for the newspaper and answer any questions or comments about our online The Dili Weekly Annual Subscription Donation Appeal either by email at: info@thediliweekly.com or by telephone at +670 7445009. There is also information About Us on the website.

Emanuel Braz
Director ǀ Managing Partner, The Dili Weekly

If you choose to make a donation to The Dili Weekly you can deposit the money directly into The Dili Weekly Bank Account in Dili, Timor-Leste:

Bank Branch Name: ANZ, Dili, East Timor
SWIFT Code: ANZBTLDI
BSB Number: 018950
Account Name: The Dili Weekly, LDA.
Account Number: 1012090635001