Yep, you read that correctly. After about three and a half years, we’ve decided to shut down our online publication effective June 1.

The past three years have been wonderful, but we did not anticipate the energy it would take to keep this sustainable and ethical.

We truly believe creators deserve to be paid for their work, and since we are unable to do that at this time, we don’t believe we should be functioning under this model that we feel is incredibly unjust.

While we have internally discussed a potential relaunch in the future, there are not any current plans in place to do so.

Since our inception, we've published hundreds of stories and photosets, created dozens and dozens of videos. We've published content that has gone viral, that has been picked up by major news organizations in the United States. We've given voices to underrepresented folks in our community, we've covered serious topics. We started an award show. We hosted community events. We've done a lot.

We have been lucky to work with such talented writers, photographers, videographers, graphic designers, copy editors, and so on. Being able to publish the content they've created over the years is one of our greatest joys. Their work with us will live online forever.

The growth of our audience and appreciation from the greater Denton community is something we can never take for granted. Thinking of all the people who read, shared, came to us with scoops and ideas, makes this decision so hard. The trust and relationship so many of you graciously extended to us is special and something our team finds incredibly difficult to let go of.

Nonetheless, we thank you for allowing us to exist the way we have in this town. So many of the publications in town publish amazing work and we encourage you to please support and subscribe to those publications.

What does this mean for the DAM Awards? The Dentonite LLC and the Denton Arts & Music non-profit are separate entities. The 2020 Denton Arts & Music Awards will take place on February 28, 2019 at the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center. You can follow DAM on Facebook or check out their website for more information.

There will be a farewell party on June 15 at Harvest House. A Facebook event will go up sometime this week.

Thank you so much for the love, support and for allowing us to give our community a stronger and alternative voice for the last three years. It has meant the world to everyone involved.