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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2015-12-02, Page 44 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, December 2, 2015 I I I www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com Nuron Expositor PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 P.O. Box 69, 8 Main Street Seaforth Ontario NOK 1 WO phone: 519-527-0240 fax: 519-527-2858 www.seaforthhuronexpositor �p] POSTMEDIA NEIL CLIFFORD Advertising Director neil. clifford@sunmedia.ca SHAUN GREGORY Multimedia Journalist shaun.gregory@sunmedia.ca DIANNE MCGRATH Front Office seaforth.classifieds@sunmedia.ca NANCY DEGANS Advertising Rep. nancy.degans@sunmedia.ca MARIE DAVID Group Advertising Director Grey Bruce Huron Division 519 376-2250 ext. 514301 or 510 364-2001 ext. 531024 SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 YEAR $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 2YEAR $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) SENIORS 60 WEEKS $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 120 WEEKS $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT P.O. Box 69 Seaforth ON NOK 1 WO For any non -deliveries or delivery concerns: phone: 519-527-0240 Advertising is accepted on condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographical error, advertising goods or services at a wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Advertising is merely an offer to set and may be withdrawn at any time. The Huron Expositor is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproduction purposes. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada Advertisement works In the early 1920s Chrysler oined forces alongside a trio of former Studebaker engineers with the grand scheme of creating a groundbreaking automobile. By 1924 the company's first afforda- ble luxury" vehicle known as the Chrysler Six hit North American avenues with a bang. The two - door six -cylinder engine became the first four-wheel hydraulic brake system to be installed in a passenger car Around that time the Seaforth Huron Expositor had been tossing papers on doorsteps for64years. Wow, have the times changed. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Chrysler car business is now united with Fiat and the conjoined car manufac- turer is doing quite well at that So well, they're rewarding their CEO Sergio Marchionne achieve- ments of merging the company with a bonus pat on the back of $72 million. Not bad eh, seeing as the Italian -Canadian was only making $7 million the year before. Nowwouldn't that be nice ifwe were crunchingnumberslikethat at the Expositor The sad truth of the subject is, we're not and it's not just us, ifs every newspaper outlet on the planet The Internet has collided into print journalism like a freight train turning those beloved papers we enjoyed read- ing to ashes. Instead ofwaiting for the media to be delivered daily or weekly by the local paperboy, people nowadays can easily open their laptop/cell phone and in a matter of seconds theyhave eve- rything they require at their fin- gertips. The revolving door of how people receive their news is con- stantly opening and closing for the bad and the good. In the 70s the Expositor was comprised of roughly a dozen hard-working bodies, induding an editor secre- taries, journalists and photogra- phers. Seaforth native and long- time secretaryDianne McGrath has been here for over four -dec- ades now, sherecallswhenwe had our own darkroom to develop pictures. It's 2015 and the officenowhas become quiet compared to what it once was. The reason is, jour- nalismhas foundawayto cut those jobs from four -five people to one person. I guess that's where Column Shaun Gregory the title multi -media journalist comes from. Whyhave aphotog- rapher and editor when you can place a camera and a CP Style- bookin the hands of an aspiring journalist and tell him or her to go about their day. Ohyeah, don't forget to edit the photo and to add to your troubles you are your own editor now, hope you don't have any spelling mistakes or errors. It makes sense and it saves aheckof alotofmoney. So you're scratch- ingyour head thinking okay "new guy" what are you getting at Well, I have been hearing some criti- cism lately around this beautiful townI call home.Ifyouknow anything about me, you best believe I'll letyou know. I've kept my ears to the streets and that's what I'm hearing. And I'm aware that this is your rightasyoupay $50 ayear to subscribe to this paper For some ofyou, allyou are askingforis alarger papei; a request I totallyunderstand. The most common occurrences is when a reader picks up the paper and instantlynotices the weight difference, they say to themselves, hey this doesn't feel right Ifeel your pain folks and believe me we are doing everything to make this paper the best I would like to clarify with you all I'm not getting a ton of com- plaints, I think to date it's been about 15-20 readers, which in my eyes too many. The reason why this paper is so light com- pared to the others in the region is in one word, advertisement. I have held the Clinton News Record and it's probably twice as heavy. You know why? Because they have flyers from Giant Tiger, the Brick and numerous other papers that are stuffed in the middle, which make the paper seem larger than itis, in fact last week we had a 16 -page publication and they had 20 pages. Not much of a difference, butwhenyou have several brochures combined, I can see why some people are upset. See with me I have no problem filling a 24-30 page Expositor. The trouble at hand is ifwe don't have enough ads, a larger paper is not financially feasible. Ads are what make the world go round, almost every- thing you see when you first step foot out your front door is an ad. Have you ever looked at a McDonalds golden arch, I swear it's like you can see that massive French -fry looking let- ter "M" from miles upon miles away. It wouldn't surprise me if it were possible to see the sign in Exeter from Seaforth. This ladies and gentleman is advertise- ment at its finest. As soon as I see that arch I'm instantly crav- ing rawing a Big Mac and large fry. There is no dodging or looking awayfromthat arch, it's in your vision, no matter what. In saying that let's work together to make this paper bigger and to achieve that we need to have more ads. I'm not saying we are going to hit home like MickeyD's, butI promise you our advertising consultant Nancy deGans will do her best to make that possi- ble. The fee is not hundreds of dollars; some ads run as low as $8 a week We have 1300 sub- scribers weekly and ifyou add their wife or children that means thousands are reading this publication. So ifyou recently opened up a newbusi- ness and you want the people to knowwhatyou have to offer, call us up andthrowan ad in. According to yourbusiness. azcentral.com, "before people can be persuaded, they must firstknowthatyou exist If you're opening a new business or introducing a new product or service, advertising in appropri- ate media vehicles is the fastest and most efficient way to create market wide awareness of your new business, product or ser- vice. This also applies if you're expanding into a new geo- graphic market:' The site even mentions that promotional ads work "Promotional advertising offers abundant opportunities to further your marketing and sales objectives. An easywayto drive more traffic for your pro- motional events is to advertise outside of your normal market area to reach more people. Pro- motional advertising is com- monly used to develop new leads and prospects. Free stuff of perceived value is quite pop- ular for collecting contact infor- mation from key decision-mak- ers ecision-makers and other high-value prospects. Online advertising is opening new opportunities for generating leads by offering high-value information that's easily downloaded in the form of e -pamphlets, white papers and e -books. If needed, we also can put the ad up digitally. Before I started we were receiving anywhere from 16,000-17,000 page views monthly for the seaforthhuron- expositor.com website, now we have almost doubled that with 26,000-29,000 views. This paper is my life, I think about it when I'm watching a movie or even on my day off when I'm playing outside with my little minions. I sleep and breathe this paper. When I hear through the grape- vine somebody is not satisfied with this paper's performance or mine, it honestly sends shiv- ers hivers down my spine. It consumes me; Iwantthe best for all of our amazing readers and so does all the staff here at the Expositor, when this goal is not achieved I feel like a failure. I find it upset- ting when someone picks the paper up and it puts it right back down because they feel it's not big enough. You're probably thinking, well that's not healthy Shaun. To me it's as nutritious as a bowl of oatmeal; it keeps a fire buming in me because the next week's paper I'm going to work my butt off until I recog- nize triumph. We at the Exposi- tor value your opinions and if you have any questions or con- cerns pertaining an ad email nancy.degans@sunmedia.ca or call the office at 519-527-0240. If you cannot reach anybody there, call me on my cell phone 519-955-1109; I don't care what time itis. My job is to make my readers happy. This is the "new guy', signing out