We hear talk all the time that newspapers are failing everywhere, and that no one under age 30 will ever read an old-fashioned print paper like the one in your hands.
Our readers are proof that these doom-and-gloom predictions are wrong, at least when it comes to community papers like The Laker/Lutz News.
There are more than 60,000 people who read our papers every week, and another 13,000 unique visitors to our website and 2,000 Facebook likes. That’s a lot of people in Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills and Dade City — a number that represents 79 percent of the households in the ZIP codes we serve.
We’re so optimistic about the future of newspapers that we’ve made significant investments in recent months to improve the quality of our papers in order to attract even more readers and advertisers.
The biggest and most noticeable change was last August, when we increased our page size by 30 percent to become the same size as most daily papers.
Today we are announcing another major investment — this one for our readers in Zephyrhills and Dade City. Beginning in January, the East Pasco edition of The Laker will once again be a weekly paper — publishing every Wednesday just like our editions in Lutz, Land O’ Lakes and Wesley Chapel.
We’ve been publishing a Laker for East Pasco residents for 10 years, beginning as a weekly and then changing to an every-other-week format in late 2011 during the height of the economic crisis. Back then, local businesses could only afford to advertise every other week, and we adjusted our business plan accordingly. But now, with our economy getting better every day, we’re ready to return to a weekly format.
Going weekly means we will include our new B Section in our East Pasco edition, a section that adds eight more pages of feature stores, photos, contests and puzzles. It also organizes all of our classified products in one section to make them easier to find.
This addition will give East Pasco readers 22 to 24 pages to read, instead of the 14 to 16 pages they receive now.
Going weekly also means that Publix will begin inserting its grocery circular in our East Pasco edition. This is in addition to circulars from Publix Liquors, SmartSource coupons, Michaels Stores — and beginning in March, Lowe’s.
It’s a big deal for most readers to get their weekly Publix circular inside their Laker so they can plan their shopping a day or two before the store’s weekly sales begin. We are thrilled to be able to provide this circular to our readers in East Pasco, especially since Publix is building its first store in Dade City in 2015.
And it’s a big deal for our company to have Publix choose our papers for its circular program. Publix is a huge testament to the effectiveness of advertising in our papers, and to the loyalty of our readers to support our advertisers and shop local.
As we get ready to go weekly in Zephyrhills, you’ll begin to see new bylines from reporters who are helping us expand our news coverage. While my staff already does a fine job writing about issues that impact readers in East Pasco, publishing weekly will obviously allow us to publish more stories on a more timely basis.
East Pasco readers also will see more stories in their paper from Wesley Chapel, Land O’ Lakes and Lutz. After all, residents of Zephyrhills and Dade City do not live in a bubble and are part of the greater Pasco community.
We know you care about what happens in neighboring towns because you shop, worship, attend school, and have friends and relatives who live there.
And that is what makes us different from other community newspapers, which only report news about happenings in Zephyrhills and Dade City. We believe East Pasco residents have much broader interests and want to read well-written stories about things that affect their lives, and read about the many good things happening in all communities of Central Pasco and East Pasco.
My staff and I are excited to take our East Pasco edition weekly in just a few weeks. We recognize this big step for our business would not be possible without the loyalty of our readers and the support of our advertisers, and we thank you for that.
We truly look forward to becoming an even more vital part of your routine — not just twice a month, but every week.
Published December 10, 2014
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