I appreciate your response to what has been said over the past few days on the blog-o-sphere. But, I am also quite disappointed that it came from you (regardless of your position in the JTA). The feelings that Elisa’s solicitation email brought forth deserve a formal response from her, as both the author of the email and President of JTA.

On a related note, and lost in all the various comments is that the solicitation email asks us “to join JTA by becoming a member of our online community. For just $50…”

Membership implies certain benefits not available to non-members. What exactly are the benefits of JTA membership?

Instead of criticizing them for this move, we should ask why the Jewish community newspapers in the US are not buying JTA articles, which are of very high quality and journalistic integrity. The JTA is trying to come up with a business model to help them survive. I’d pay for it, if I read their articles.

Karin Kloosterman

Dear Reader:

There is no business in the world changing faster than the news business. The speed of the Internet creates instant journalism. What JTA delivers is comprehensive, incisive journalism that is critical to each one of us as opinion leaders and as community leaders. What JTA reports today will determine our decisions tomorrow.

As a business owner, I subscribe to Bloomberg News. As a Jewish communal leader, I need to read JTA every day.

This is why I am asking you to become a member of JTA today. Your $50 membership–less than $1 per day–is vital to maintaining the standard of journalistic excellence we all rely upon.

JTA delivers the information you need and, more importantly, the in-depth analysis. Behind our stories stands a superior team of professional journalists spanning the globe, who make sense of the news noise, bloggers, government officials and community leaders.

Our heritage teaches us to ask questions. JTA is a key source in finding answers.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Happy Pesach!

Signature

Elisa Spungen Bildner
President

P.S. The Internet may be free, but news has a real cost. Practically every day there is word of another media outlet shrinking or shutting down. Please become a JTA member today and help keep the international Jewish stories coming.

Storytelling is fundamental to the Jewish experience.

It is how we hand down our culture to the generations. Next week we will gather with family and friends to tell the seminal story of Jewish existence-the powerful exodus of our people.

And, storytelling is what JTA does every day. Mumbai … Gaza…Durban. Obama …Madoff … Netanyahu. Whoever it is, wherever it is – JTA tells the story, so that our community stays informed.

At this moment, JTA’s ability to tell these stories is threatened by the realities of the economic downturn. And, in the chaos of the information age in which we live, it is even harder to find the trusted voices on which we rely for independence and accuracy.

Without a strong JTA, the storytelling will be left to bloggers, twitterers, and non-professionals. Is this the best way for our future Jewish stories to be told and recorded?

I am asking you to join JTA by becoming a member of our online community. For just $50 a year-less than $1 a day-you will signal that you value the service we are providing and take responsibility for supporting it.

During the seder, one of the four children asks, “What does this service mean to you?” I am asking you to ponder that same question and join us by becoming a member.

This year IS different from all other years. Please come forward today. Allow us to know by Seder Night that with your help, our story will continue to be told.

Thanks and Happy Pesach!
Elisa Spungen Bildner
President

It read “JTA delivers the information you need and, more importantly, the in-depth analysis. Behind our stories stands a superior team of professional journalists spanning the globe, who make sense of the news noise, bloggers, government officials and community leaders.”