For almost five years, I’ve been an editor, responsible for making sure that a variety of content such as news, features, community events and sports get into the newspaper.
Now I’m taking on an additional role: publisher.
As the publisher, I’m responsible for managing our business as a whole. Together with the great team we’ve got at this paper, we have to make sure there’s good content to read, that the paper gets into your hands each and every week, that we talk to businesses and help them promote their businesses with the advertising that we can offer, and make money to fund everything.
It’s a new challenge, but it’s one that I’m looking forward to.
Yet at the end of the day, I don’t think my mission has changed.
A community newspaper – and when I say that, I also include our online offerings – is all about the community.
In the news side, that means making sure that citizens are informed so they can make strong decisions to move the community forward, that those that are doing great things are celebrated, and that problems are highlighted so they can be fixed.
There’s a community function in advertising as well.
According to research done by News Media Canada, 54 per cent of people pick up the paper because they want to see the ads. They want to know what local merchants are offering and what they have for sale.
One of our roles is to help businesses reach people. When more people go through their doors, that means those businesses will earn more, which in turn means they’ll spend more money, hire more people, and support our local organizations and sports teams.
We’re successful when local businesses are successful.
I’d like to thank this community for the support it has given our newspaper for more than a century. I’m looking forward to see what we can do in the future.
