BY LAWRENCE SOBCZAK
PUBLISHER
The Record Newspaper is celebrating seven years of publishing this week.
Yes, it’s true — your community has its own locally-owned and locally-operated newspaper in this day and age when most cynics are writing an obituary for newspapers.
What do we owe these years of success? You, our subscribers and advertisers. Thank you.
Your steadfast support has allowed us to grow and improve the newspaper.
In a world where only roughly one in three businesses survive beyond five years, at seven years old, I’d say this newspaper has a pretty good business, wouldn’t you?
When we report on news in the community, readers know this is not social media gossip, and they can count on us to give a fair shake. We will never surrender telling the truth in exchange for likes.
While we do maintain a fully-functional digital presence for our diverse pool of readers, our primary product always has been and always will be our printed newspaper.
We know committing stories to ink and paper commits us to getting the news right.
Besides, who doesn’t like to find a nice comfortable chair or drink a hot cup of coffee while paging through a printed newspaper that’s all about their community?
Today, our newspaper’s products and services reach more people than at any point in my lifetime. How many businesses do you know that can say that?
Newspaper subscribers are as loyal as customers can be. Unlike buy-and-go customers, people find enough value in our products and services to become business partners. They partner with us by subscribing.
They want a paper delivered to their home or updated regularly on the website. Other dedicated readers make it part of their weekly ritual to buy the newspaper at one of our more than 24 retail locations in northern Macomb and Oakland counties.
Our readers depend on us to share the community’s obituaries, cover how their hard-earned tax money is spent and tell them how their hometown heroes did under the Friday night lights.
All of this means that our newspaper has thousands of repeat customers who buy every edition. Do you think a restaurant would like that many folks showing up every day or week to consume their product?
Research shows that communities without a newspaper performing the basic watchdog duty of keeping the people’s business in the light of day have higher crime rates, less government transparency and higher taxes.
An essential element of a newspaper’s DNA is to bring governmental activities to the attention of citizen taxpayers.
Our newspaper is where this community finds out what their elected officials are up to — and our newspaper plays a role in debating the issues. Would you rather live in one of those other communities?
Twice during our first seven years, that type of reporting had so angered a couple of former elected officials that they began campaigns to boycott our newspaper and limit its distribution.
How did our readers react? Those officials are no longer in office. The public wants the news of their community and they want to be the ones to decide whether we got a story right, not an elected official for them.
Local newspapers are among the most established businesses in any town, are trusted by their communities and reach a larger combined audience than ever.
People consider their hometown paper valuable enough to pay good money for its long-term services.
A town with an active newspaper is statistically a better place to live.
Here’s to year eight!
