“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” ―Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the United States
It’s been one year since the Herald’s near-death experience. Thanks to the dedicated support of so many of you in our local community, we’re still here, now in our 140th year of publication. I pledged to do more “behind the curtain” updates, and I’m following up on that this week.
As of Oct. 10, 2024, we’ve mailed 26,958 newspapers this year. That doesn’t count digital-only subscribers or single-copy sales. The newsletter is emailed to more than 2,000 readers with an astounding 50% open rate (the average open rate across all industries is 21%). Website traffic is steady at a little over 12,000 visitors per month on average. (Side note: those are advertising channels that provide a committed and engaged audience if you’re wondering whether it’s worth it to pay for local advertising. )
Last fall, we took immediate steps to stop the hemorrhaging, including laying off our full-time reporter, ending single-copy delivery in Rangely and Dinosaur (subscribers still get their copy every week by mail), and cutting back on single-copy delivery in Meeker. We disciplined ourselves about advertising/editorial ratios and page count, endeavoring to maintain the recommended average 50% of paid advertising in each week’s edition. That means fewer pages and less “fluff,” but a healthier bottom line.
The bulk of a newspaper’s revenue comes from display advertising, and as those numbers remained low (we’re still looking for a commission-based salesperson), Caitlin made the difficult decision to lay herself off in April and I took over her page design duties. Thankfully, she is still doing the billing and the newsletter because she’s really good at those things and I am not. Emily, our part-time employee, is learning how to do some of the design work, and Jared Henderson came on board as a freelancer this fall to write stories and cover meetings. They are invaluable, as are the rest of our reporters and photographers who submit items for publication.
Printing, postage, and personnel are our primary expenditures. We trimmed the printing budget by slashing our weekly print run, and cut personnel as mentioned above. We can’t do much about postage. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has raised mailing rates by 50% and reduced delivery standards for periodicals for several years now.
We implemented a new website provider and online subscription system and a way for donors to give tax-deductible funds through an agreement with the historical society as we pivot toward a non-profit/community-ownership model in the next two years. On that note, we’ve established a board that meets monthly to plan, strategize, and come up with ways to keep this historical community institution viable and “thrivable” for the future. Thank you, Lyttle Project board members. You’ve helped keep my head above water for the last six months.
What’s next? We’ve applied for a matching #newsCOneeds grant through the Colorado Media Project and hope to raise enough funds to bring Jared on part-time instead of just freelance. That will be part of the Colorado Gives Day project this year if we get accepted. Stay tuned.
Thank you, again, for keeping your community newspaper alive!