Now that our new Community Calendar section and web page have been live in both print and online for a few weeks, I have been asked, “Why am I charging for this service?”. I’ll try and answer this as best I can.
Over the past years that I have owned the Lumby Valley Times, I have been contacted by several clubs, organizations, clubs, small businesses and people in general, if I can put an advertisement for an event, class, dance, bingo, etc in the newspaper for free for them.
As much as as I would love to help support them, as a small local business, I only have a limited amount in my budget for “Free Advertising ”, sponsorships, donations and promotions.
At one time, there was a “What’s On” section in the newspaper that was free to put your event in. This was meant as a way for free community events to get the word out to the public. After a while, I noticed a growing number of events, that were charging a fee, other than an annual membership, being listed in the “What’s On” section that should have been paid advertising. Although I could let a few slide by at the time, after a while I found too many people were taking advantage of this and I was losing too much money because of it.
I totally understand that many of these great events are just to “keep the doors open” or to “cover the costs”. Please know that I, and the community, appreciate the work put into these events, classes etc.
Please remember, just like the many great businesses in our community that support, donate and attend these events, , the Lumby Valley Times is also a small locally owned and operated business and I am also just trying to “keep the doors open.” To answer one of the questioned asked, No, we do not receive any regional, provincial or federal funding to publish the newspaper. It is completely funded by the advertising of our fantastic clients.
With all of this in mind, I came up with the idea of reviving the “What’s On” section but renaming it as the “Community Calendar” and doing it in a way that will keep the costs to the public to a minimum ($20 for 4 weeks) but also covering my costs to publish it both in print and online.
Please check it out and add your events, bingos, classes, etc as they come up. If you are holding a free public event, ie: Community Garage Sale, parade, etc and I can put those in for free. If you don’t know if your event qualifies for the free listings, just reach out to me and ask.
As always, I enjoy hearing from the public and if you have any ideas and suggestions of how we can make the Community Calendar better or if you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you,
Andrew Hutton, Owner/Publisher
