It is with a heavy heart that, after 11 years, The Mount Vernon Grapevine will be closing its doors.

During this time, we have seen many changes in our world, several of which have had an impact upon our ability to run the newspaper in a cost effective manner. With ever-increasing hosting costs, and the additional costs incurred to simply thwart would-be hackers of our web site over the last three years, we have, as always, relied solely on revenue from Google Ads to pay for its continued upkeep.

In the last couple of years we have seen an increased emphasis on ad-blocking and a decrease in the relevance of Google ads, due (rightly so) to a clamp down on both Google’s and Facebook’s abilities to track our movement and surfing habits. This has, unfortunately, resulted in us running at a financial loss for the last two years.

More recently, Roxie, who picked up the gauntlet of running the newspaper not long after its inception, has faced surgery, which we expect to leave her unable to return to work for potentially up to three months.

With nobody left to fill the void, and no new content on the site for that period, the current running cost to income ratio is expected to fall further, with readers going elsewhere for the daily news.

Effectively running the paper single-handedly (no pun intended Roxie), Roxie has done an admirable job over these last 11 years, and my thanks go to her, along with all of our subscribers, regular readers, and followers, for making this venture possible and sustainable for as long as it has been.

Hopefully, someday in the future, our paths will cross again. Until then, on behalf of Roxie and myself, we wish you all the best of health and good fortune.

Sincerely,



Joint Editor-In-Chief
The Mount Vernon Grapevine