A note from the Newsy Girls...

Well, this certainly isn’t how we expected to celebrate our 150th Issue and 14th year in business. When we had our 100th issue, the magazine was 100 pages and it was CHOCK FULL of ads, articles, jokes, and more. We were so incredibly proud of it. When television shows have their 100th Episode, they have large cake and group photos and a huge celebration – that’s essentially what we did with our 100th issue. We were so, so proud to have hit that milestone. Since that issue, SO MUCH has happened. I mean, it was 50 months ago… but here we are celebrating our 150th issue and we aren’t even able to print it. The whole world is up in the air and the future of so many of our friends and family businesses are in question. We join you in your worry, fear, and questionable future. What we KNOW We KNOW that there are a lot of businesses in protection mode and going through some hard times with these extraordinary circumstances. What we also KNOW, is people are getting drained and exhausted of all the negative and scary talk and panic. We know it is very important to stay educated, but we also know that if you don’t maintain a steady flow of positivity, humour and light, this will all get the best of you. We KNOW how many people love the magazine and read it on a constant basis looking for feel-good reading, a couple laughs, information about what is happening in the community and what local resources are at their fingertips. We KNOW this, because we have over 19,000... no, actually, it’s over 20,500 SUBSCRIBERS to the digital edition of the magazine. Yay! What is FACT It is expensive to PRINT a magazine and deliver it, and the fact is, if businesses are in protection mode and not spending, they are hesitant to pay for an expense that would be easy to brush aside until next month. We are in the same place as you are. We have employees to take care of, families to feed and a future to prepare for. It is also a FACT that people will still need to see who is staying strong in the community. Who they can rely on for necessary needs and services, and we have an incredibly effective and trustworthy outlet to let the community know that YOU ARE STILL HERE, AND HERE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY! WHAT are we DOING? We have made the difficult decision to hold back on printing the magazine until this immense economic panic has slowed down, but that doesn’t mean we are changing what we do. In fact, we are going to work even harder to make up for the loss of the print edition of the magazine. We are going to continue to send out the digital edition once a week to all the subscribers. We are going to continue to advertise it on our website and social media streams, but we are going to do it more frequently AND we are going to take on some target marketing for our readers. What does THAT mean? That means that we will be writing letters to the community members, posting in the community groups, participating in the events, charities and support gatherings and our promise to you is we will get your information into the eyes of the people that need your products and services MOST at this time. We are going to PROMISE you, that if you support us, not only will we support you by recommending and promoting your business (as we always have) but we will be seeking out who needs what and contacting them and putting them in direct contact with you. If we don’t band together in these hard times and become part of the solution it is going to be even harder to weather this storm. WHAT WE WANT YOU TO DO We want you to take a look at your products and services and think about what you can offer that no one else can; how can you help? If you have a business in the health & wellness industry, think of how you can aid in people’s contentment, mental health, feel good things. Remind people that they still need to take care of themselves and feel themselves or treat themselves in these hard times, even. You cannot pour from and empty cup. You have to take care of yourself first. Refine your message on how you can help with this, and what you can offer so your potential customer chooses YOU over your competition. If you are in an industry where your services are un-doubtfully going to slow down, and you’re hesitant to even push your services at this time, take this as an opportunity to show people other areas you are strong and dependable by offering support in other ways. Help collect and deliver supplies. Help a charity, do something that gives back to the community that has supported you for so long and remind people that you are here and why you are so valuable to have in the community, so when the time is right again, they will come to you first. So, think of your message, your WHY in this extraordinary situation and tell us what it is. We will help you refine your message and get your information out to the people that need to see it most! The Newsy Neighbour is striving to be part of the solution. We want to give back to all the businesses that have been supporting us these past 14 years. We promise that this issue and future online-only issues will be FULL of jokes, feel good reading and a breath of fresh air for all our supporters. The Newsy Neighbour isn’t going anywhere. We’re here for you. Together, we can make it through this. Aleesha Gosling and Denise Geremia