BY LAWRENCE SOBCZAK
PUBLISHER
Whew! We’re two years old!!
In some ways, our first issue on Dec. 1, 2015 feels like yesterday. In other ways, 95 issues seem like a long, long time ago.
We’ve made a lot of improvement to your Record Newspaper over the past year.
Most noticeably, we’ve increase the sheet size of our pages, in industry lingo, from tabloid to broadsheet. We’ve added more content. We’re now available in more locations throughout northern Macomb and Oakland counties. We added more specialty publications such as our popular Events and Adventure Guide. We have more regular contributors to the newspaper.
In the next year, we plan on continuing the growth. We want to add more content, more news, and more features. Did I hear someone say “more history”? We want to add more locations where you can find The Record. Look for expansion in our specialty publications. It has always been our goal to improve with each issue.
People often ask what is the key to growing a newspaper in an era when our competition is closing their doors or they are laying people off. The answer is simple: you can’t stay in business if you give your product away. This is the fatal mistake the other newspapers have made.
We don’t post our articles on the Internet for free and we don’t flood a neighborhood week after week with newspapers thrown on every driveway whether they ask for it or not. We charge a subscription fee and have a cover price at the store. It helps pay the bills.
When a business or organization approaches us with an event to promote—we highly suggest placing an ad. Not only are you the best promoter of your business or organization, an ad allows you to say exactly what you want to say. Also, ad dollars help pay the salaries of reporters and production costs associated with printing the newspaper.
Our readers and advertisers understand and they responded. Thank you!
Advertising drives the number of pages we can print. Our largest regular issue to date was May 31, 2017 which was two sections and 20 pages long. In both September and October, we set monthly page count records.
Our subscription numbers continue to grow at a steady rate with notable spikes.
When politicians and their cronies squawk about stories in the newspaper, our circulation has made the biggest jumps and our newsstands nearly sellout of copies.
Just this past week, our week-to-week subscription numbers made such a large jump, that in one year from now, we could double the number of subscribers.
Let’s keep the momentum rolling.
Tell your friends, neighbors, and relatives to take out a subscription to The Record. Buy them a gift subscription. If they already have a subscription, we will extend it.
If you have a business, take out an ad in The Record. There is no one else that can reach northern Macomb County and surrounding areas like we do.
Let businesses know you saw their ad in The Record. Encourage businesses that don’t yet advertise to place an ad. Let them know their favorite customers read The Record.
Let’s see in one more year how big we can grow this newspaper!
