Yes, This Newspaper Is Affected By Shutdown, Too

By Debby Stricker
The Okawville Times, as well as all newspapers, is negatively affected by the near shut-down of the economy.
Our workload and operating costs remain the same, but the income has decreased. Businesses that had to temporarily close or curtail operations are not advertising.  Also gone are the ads for events, because everything is canceled.
Since newspapers are considered “essential businesses” we don’t have the option of taking a break and returning when things get better.
That leads us with the option of trying to grow the number of  subscribers. In contrast to the newspaper industry in general, our number of subscribers has actually increased in each of the past ten years.
But we would like to do better!
This is how you can insure the future of any weekly newspaper. Subscribe or pick one up at the newsstand every week. If your adult children living on their own don’t get a weekly paper, make that a suggestion or gift them with a subscription to the paper in the town where they now live.
Remind them that a weekly newspaper covered the news and photos of their accomplishments because their parents and grandparents bought newspapers. Newspapers will be around to cover THEIR children if THEY subscribe.
If you find something of interest in a newspaper, ask other people if they saw it. That will spark interest. If you like a newspaper, recommend it to a friend.
Submit a news tip or story idea.
And most importantly, support your area businesses and area events. A vibrant business climate, community involvement, and strong weekly newspapers are intertwined.
Newspapers are different from other businesses because we don’t charge by the hour for the time it takes to write articles or by the space they occupy. Articles and photos about new businesses, feature stories, school news, public events,  village and county news, courthouse news, and sports and much, much more are all put in the paper free. That is why advertisements are the life-blood of a newspaper.