By Bill Derby, Publisher
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often…” – Winston Churchill
We are changing and the spirit that inspired the quote above will help us create a better publication for our readers and customers.
The Johnson City News & Neighbor will be changing from Saturday delivery to Wednesday delivery effective Wednesday, July 30. We will publish a Saturday July 26 edition. You will continue to receive the News & Neighbor each Wednesday thereafter.
You may or may not know that all the major grocery chains in the Johnson City and Washington County market have changed their sale dates by moving their advertising and inserts to Wednesday distribution. Since our newspaper has been a long-time business partner with these companies we are also changing to deliver their sales inserts and advertising.
Our world is in transition and we must be flexible to meet our customers’ needs and we are. And, as one door closes, another opens. We think this will offer a number of advantages for our readers and company.
A Wednesday newspaper will enable us to cover county and city government news as well as high school sports and advanced news on weekend events in a more timely fashion. We will provide a better, more valuable newspaper for you, our readers.
Our dream and long-term goal has always been to add a second weekly edition. Moving our publication day to Wednesday will now open the door for us to publish a Sunday edition in the future, an even better strategy for growing our company and service to the community, readers and advertisers.
The engine that drives our ability to deliver to nearly 31,000 homes is advertising. Our paid subscriber edition, The Johnson City News, publishes two more pages of local news and that helps too. We are grateful and appreciate every reader and subscriber we have and hope you will adjust to the new delivery schedule as we will.
In our latest circulation audit and readership survey, 88 percent of our readers indicated they would enjoy an added Johnson City News & Neighbor edition. Community leaders, for a number of years, have requested we publish a mid-week edition.
Our 17 years of home delivery have created a very powerful brand and loyal readership. Your community newspaper, with circulation and readership audited annually by Circulation Verification Council, is a national award-winning and five-time General Excellence Award-winning publication with the largest audited circulation and readership in our market.
The newspaper’s annual readership survey and audit proves our readership is substantially more than double that of any newspaper in Johnson City and Washington County. That says a lot for our great community and readers. Thank you.
Regardless of publication day, we remain committed to bringing you The News & Neighbor to which you have become accustomed. We will bring you the stories that make you say to your friends, “Did you see the story and photo about (your neighbor, friend, local government or business) in The News & Neighbor?”
Thank you again to our loyal readers and customers. We look forward to bringing you an even better newspaper every week.
