I’ve spent the last week really contemplating the wisdom of keeping the print version of the paper. So many reasons why it doesn’t make sense. Mostly, cost and especially costs over the past six months. Holy cow. The whole country is suffering the effects of inflation and we are no different.
You know me, I’d print this thing forever, but it simply does not make financial sense. There is a reason newspapers are going away.
Several people have told me they agree. It’s lame to continue printing and our online version has suffered. But even more, have told me we have to keep the paper alive. And in the printed version. They say I should raise the prices and keep pushing.
Raise the price?!?!?!
I hadn’t even considered. But when you think of it, it does make sense. We’ve been printing for a year and nine months and things have changed dramatically since we started.
I’m also working on the online version – we have a cool plan that’s going to make things better for our online customers as well as the paper as a whole.
Our competitor’s answer to rising costs has been to cut the number of papers they deliver to the newsstand. They also own, in addition to the LVN, the papers along I-80 -- Lovelock, Winnemucca, and Battle Mountain. A few weeks ago, the publisher announced from his San Francisco office that he was combining those three papers that have served their individual communities for nearly a century into one paper, the “Great Basin Sun.” Lovelock no longer has its own paper. Neither does Winnemucca or Battle Mountain.
Another revenue source available to papers is the legal notices. I took a gamble when I started the paper on the interpretation of the Nevada Revised Statute that covers public notices. There are several requirements to qualify to print these notices and one by one we met each of them. The law provides an exception to the requirement to print for 104 weeks, that if your paper is printed and published in the community the 104 weeks is waived. That was my gamble and that is why we have Becky. We print here in Fallon. All of our money stays right here in Fallon.
There has been a great debate and disagreement over whether we meet the exception, in spite of the very clear language in the NRS. We’ve been threatened litigation by our competition who “publishes” meaning performing the layout, in Carson City and prints in Tracy, California. The judicially required answer would come way after we get to 104 weeks, and cost even more money to pay lawyers to solve it in court so we are biding our time. We have 12 more weeks. We just need to hang on for 12 more weeks.
And in the midst of all these worrisome thoughts, a rash of new subscribers came this week out of the blue. We sold some ads out of the blue, and some of our advertisers are renewing their long-term contracts. Just like this thing has done for three years and eight months, and believe me we are more grateful than you know, the magic saves us, and we are still right here…
…Keeping you Posted.
Rach
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