As most subscribers and even casual readers have noticed, we’ve had some issues since the weekend before Christmas. We’re going to address those issues in a bit in this article. However, since the first issue, we have been asked: “How can I help the Gazette grow and become better?” This little piece is all about that.
Number one: if you have information that the community would like, consider either submitting a story or talking to a writer. Even if you don’t think you can write, we can help, and we love sharing truthful stories, stories about life in Great Falls right now, and stories about the past.
Number two: if you have a business, please consider advertising with the Gazette. We have over 1,400 readers every week who may need your goods or services! We now have a name-your-price ad special, this is a great time to save a few dollars and try out our advertising. We are very good at finding a way to get your message out, no matter what your budget is!
Right now the publisher (that would be me) takes care of billing, helps with delivery (I spend about 30 hours a week just on circulation, and Don spends more like 70-80!), subscriptions, bookkeeping, dealing with postal and regulatory issues, and trying to make sure all the equipment that keeps our operation going. Somewhere in there, I’m supposed to sell ads. Guess what hasn’t gotten much attention in the past 16 months? You’ve got it, advertising.
Number three: share the Gazette with friends and neighbors. If you like what we’re doing, you can help grow it by sharing it with others. We don’t mind!
That takes care of the easy items. Then there is the tough stuff. When we started back in August of 2023, we hoped to have 500 readers by the end of 2024. Today we have over 1,400 readers. That number does not count web users, or take into account that most of our promo papers get dozens of reads, every day. This has meant that the aforementioned publisher guy has been burning the candle at both ends. In addition to long hours, growth is expensive.
Our current equipment was purchased to handle about 2,000 daily-sized (16 pages) issues per week. When we added in the Sunday paper, which is twice the size of the daily papers, additionally the number of subscriptions on Sunday has quite literally exploded. Now, we’re not over stressing our current press, however, we no longer have a backup system that can handle a Sunday edition, or really, even the two daily papers.
As astute readers may have noticed, on Sunday, the 22nd of December, our press (for only the second time) broke down. While the part that originally broke is fairly inexpensive (our cost to replace was less than $300), it also damaged the black drum unit. Hence why, during this past week, there have been some nasty streaks on the top of the paper. Believe me when I say we don’t find this situation acceptable.
Our toner use is pretty minimal, and even the consumables on the machine are fairly inexpensive. However, breaking parts is VERY expensive. And to be frank, we’ve had very little issue with the system. But as the single weak link in our process, it’s a scary thing when Don comes in and says we are filling the waste box very quickly (the system can drain a toner cartridge into the waste box in about 3 minutes if things go wrong. That cartridge can cost $150, even at wholesale prices!) What this means is that we now must start looking at getting a second press.
We have the opportunity to pick up a rebuilt unit for about $10,000 complete and shipped from the Midwest to Montana. That price includes the finishing equipment the new(to us) press would require, as well as the spares we need to keep on hand for consumables. Because it’s the same model unit as what we already have, we wouldn’t need nearly the number of spares that we were forced to buy with the first one. Also, because it’s refurbished, it doesn’t have a $40,000 price tag that just the original unit was sold for originally.
One big positive with getting a second press, our current setup requires about 6 hours of work to print all the papers, sort them into routes, bag, bundle (for our retail locations), and prepare to go out for delivery or to be dropped off at the post office (just doing that paperwork takes about 20 minutes!) Once we have the second press, that will drop to about 4 hours, and give us the backup unit that we critically need.
We’ve talked about a “Founders Club” for folks who wanted to chip in to help build this paper, but I’ve always hated that name, we are now an established paper, so we’re going to start a Foundation Club. The money raised will help build a foundation for the paper to continue building on. The better the foundation, the more sturdy the building.
People can help grow this company through donations. As a thank you, we would give our patrons an acknowledgment on our website, as well as in the paper itself, people could even use it as a memorial for loved ones.
There would be several levels of patronage. Granite members are members who donate $5 or more. Concrete members are members who donate more than $50, Sapphire members donate over $100, Ruby members donate over $250, Emerald members donate over $500, and Diamond members make donations of over $1000.
Anyone may donate, however, donations are NOT tax deductible. As a publisher, I’ve already put over $80,000 in to get us this far, and as an investment, I feel we are on the right track, we just need a small push to put the company in a good place to continue growth and build an even larger audience while keeping costs down and being widely available.
And if we don’t raise money? Well, it’s not dire, the paper would continue, but we would have to do what any business or family must do when times get tough, we’ll have to tighten the belt and take care of the paper. We would have to stop focusing on growth and spend time building more diverse infrastructure. This isn’t bad, but it would delay some of the projects we would like to see come to the paper. Either way, the Gazette is on firm footing and will be for the foreseeable future!
Author: Andy Anderson
Andy is publisher of Foxys Publishing Co, as well as pressman, ad sales, distribution and sometime janitor. He occasionally makes a wild attempt at writing but quite often is seen running around our offices trying to "Get 39 million things done today..."
