In these uncertain times, residents of Barton County and central Kansas need credible, unbiased news coverage upon which they can base personal decisions on how to react to the threat posed to us all by COVID-19.

Here at the Great Bend Tribune, we are well aware that the information we are providing to you may literally prove to be the difference between life and death. We are very much aware that you depend on The Tribune to be honest and factual in its reporting, and we take that responsibility to heart, as we have for the past 143 years.

Over the past few weeks, we have covered this health crisis from a variety of different angles, with stories on everything from the latest recommended precautions to businesses adapting to changes to the dozens of positive, heartwarming things being done in our community to make things better. 

Many of those stories have been made available at no cost, because they were important to us all.

Remember that we also live here, work here and raise our families here. We are beset with the same worries and concerns that keep you awake at night, and fully understand why having a credible source of information is important. That’s one reason we work so hard to make sure we are delivering to you news upon which you can make intelligent decisions.

We have the largest team of reporters working in Barton County and the central Kansas area. Beyond being reliable professionals who work extremely hard to keep you up to date, they are your friends and neighbors. 

The same is true for all of our employees, whether they run our printing presses, maintain our websites or help our advertisers to grow their businesses.

In addition, we have created the Facebook groups Great Bend Cares and Great Bend Connect. These have been platforms for the community to come together, share needs and offer each other support.

But the process of doing so is not cheap, and like many other small local businesses, the crisis has had a substantial negative impact on our business operations by stopping the flow of advertising dollars upon which we depend for support. 

Our commitment to you is to provide you with as much information as we possibly can about what is going on around us during this unbelievably difficult time. All of that information that has a direct impact on public health and welfare will be made available at no charge to all who visit our digital news site.

But we need your support to continue. If you are already a subscriber, we thank you for your support and hope you will consider buying a gift subscription for a friend or family member. 

If you are not a subscriber, we hope you will consider doing so to help finance our news gathering and reporting efforts. You can do so for very little cost and get your first month online free. Our subscription offers are available at gbtribune.com and click on the subscribe button or call 620-792-1211. 

We are providing news to our community about the coronavirus for free because it’s the right thing for a newspaper to do. We are asking for your financial support because we can’t keep doing it and survive as a business.

Please consider how you can support us so we can keep doing what we do best, which is serve our readers. Without you, it can’t happen.