Rivers Banner

This week I am going to write about a topic that is obviously near and dear to my heart. My wife and I have invested a lifetime into rural communities in south-western Manitoba. Christine was born at Virden and raised at Scarth and attended high school in Virden. Some of her ancestors were the earliest European people to come to the Virden District.They include the Milnes, the Jeffreys, the Ivens families and a bit later the Lobels. My Manitoba roots aren’t as deep as Christine’s but my family lived in Wapella, Saskatchewan (The McFadyens) and then Winnipeg (The Waddells) and then Muir (near Gladstone) and then Holland. We are pretty much rural based and have a fair amount of farm, business and rural experience and yes, newspaper experience. We started in the newspaper business in1968 and for the sake of keeping track, that’s 58 years ago. We have been blessed with an ever larger family, hundreds of friends and I daresay, very few people who dislike us. Those few that do, are polite enough not to say much. We love the newspaper businesses and after the aforementioned 58 years, we have some ideas and observations about how to make it work.

   In our opinion, newspapers need to be small and locally owned and managed. The Manitoba landscape is littered with the shadows and remnants of dead newspapers, almost all of which were corporately, out-ofprovince owned.

   Copies of newspapers can be sold over the counter, distributed by subscription or, as in our case, distributed free. Our three papers are handed out in about 160 locations from Ste. Rose to Reston, from Westbourne to Elkhorn. They are in news stands and many, many stores. In the case of stores and other businesses, owners seem happy to have customers come into their establishment to pick up the paper.

   Advertising is the life blood of newspapers. I do have a concern that has developed over the past few years. It’s no secret that advertising that was once common in newspapers all the way back to the founding of our papers in the 1890s to early 1900s has changed. There used to be ads, and sometime very large ones, for groceries and automobiles. Many ads have shifted to flyers, TV and the internet.  For a while, government ads almost all disappeared to social media and facebook. It is switching back some and for that we are thankful.While social media has its place for sure, you would think that governments should be advertising with Canadian media, not California based internet companies.

   Please consider using your local paper to advertise. Yes, it costs some money, but if nobody attends your event, it costs a lot of money too. If a $50 ad brings in even a few more people to your event, it should be a good return on the investment.

   Be sure to advertise early. Most community newspapers come out on Thursdays or Fridays. That’s way too late to advertise an event that is happening on the immediate Saturday or Sunday. People are very busy these days and need to plan ahead for a week or two.

   Check with your local paper and ask about discounts on multiple ads. And please, get the ad in early enough that it can be designed with a strong visual appeal. Nothing drives a newspaper crazy faster than having to make up ads at, or past, the deadline.

   There is one local type of advertising that I think, needs to be revisited and that’s local events. We are grateful for all the local event ads. What drives us crazy is the events and organizations that don’t advertise anywhere except on social media. We were told about a local event only advertised on social media in one of our communities recently, and it should have been a very important one. It should have had 100 or even 200 people at it. There were two. That’s an extreme example but it is indicative of certain facts. Many people don’t look at social media. Much of social media is reels that have absolutely nothing to do with our local communities. Ok, folks, how many pet videos, prank videos and yes, even pornography do we need? What, if any, good does some of the garbage on social media have that benefits our local communities? At best, it’s humorous and at worst it’s harmful. Someone recently said with the internet, we get fresh water and sewage out of the same pipe. I know that sounds harsh, but think about it for a moment.

   Thanks for keeping your local newspaper in mind, we have been around for long time and hope to be around for a long time to come.