I am writing this column to personally invite you to join our new ReaderSHIP Club.
We started this club to give us a direct line of communication with our most important customer base — local residents like you who read The Laker/Lutz News every week.
We also established the club to thank you for your loyalty and patronage by sending you club goodies, shown in the above photo with our mascot, Buddy the Beagle (who is also my 14-year-old rescue dog).
It’s been just a few weeks since we launched our ReaderSHIP Club, and we already have a few hundred members. There is no cost to join — all we ask for is your physical and email addresses so we can stay in touch and send you our club e-newsletter and postcards, and little surprises from Buddy.
People who join our ReaderSHIP Club care about our community, their neighbors, local community organizations and area businesses — the people and groups we cover in The Laker/Lutz News through stories, photos, news items, announcements and advertisements.
Need more reasons to join?
- You get to interact with our staff at The Laker/Lutz News and fellow readers. We’re a family, of sorts, who celebrate each other’s milestones, family photos, personal stories, even recipes.
- Every month I share my favorite stories and photos, and why I chose them as our best.
- Become our Reader of the Month, too! This is a fun way to thank our most loyal readers and reward them with fun prizes for sharing their story with fellow members.
- Receive personal invitations to private special events, just for club members.
- Get on Buddy’s mailing list for regular postcards and giveaways.
- Participate in focus groups and research that help guide the direction of The Laker/Lutz News as we grow with our community.
In coming months we will be asking you to share ideas on how to enhance our community newspaper, website and social media platforms. We want to be more relevant and engaging, and ultimately, a more valuable resource for you and your neighbors.
Fortunately for our company, Gov. Ron DeSantis ruled newspapers an essential business at the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown. We’ve continued to write stories, deliver the newspaper and help businesses reach our readers through advertisements, which are especially important now as businesses work hard to reopen their doors and adapt their business plans.
We are fortunate that many businesses continued to advertise in The Laker/Lutz News through the coronavirus crisis, thereby allowing us to avoid cutting back our circulation. We are very proud that we continue to print and deliver 47,395 papers every week in Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills and Dade City.
This is especially important today, because we are the primary source for many residents looking for local information about COVID-19 and other timely issues.
I believe that newspapers like The Laker/Lutz News are the original social medium — the glue that holds a community together. It is my hope that our new ReaderSHIP Club provides a vehicle so that your voices are more clearly heard in the pages of our newspaper.
I want to thank the inaugural members of our ReaderSHIP Club, and encourage you to become a new member by signing up at tinyurl.com/y74gjrf8, emailing me your interest at , or calling our office at (813) 909-2800. I truly look forward to hearing your thoughts and meeting you personally when we begin to have club get-togethers later in the year.
Published June 10, 2020
