In late October of 2022, Andy and Karen took over the Augusta Breeze, a semi-monthly newsletter for the Cowboy town of Augusta. Little did they know that it would bloom into a full newspaper and eventually spawn The Great Falls Gazette. And while The Breeze grew rapidly, the ability to generate enough revenue to keep the free paper going just never materialized.
In May of 2023, the decision was made to expand the area of The Breeze to include the Sun River Valley between Augusta and Great Falls. While that increased readership quite a bit, it generated very little revenue, leaving the little paper with many wonderful, dedicated readers and more bills.
Foxy’s Publishing was born in late July, and a second paper was envisioned as the Augusta Breeze of Great Falls. With a clear focus on local news, features, and publication of events, the Great Falls Gazette would have access to a much larger market for both readers and Advertisers.
In developing the paper, however, it was decided that the Gazette would be a subscription-based paper, relying more on readers’ support than trying to make a cost-effective local newspaper that would appeal to advertisers, particularly in the current economic environment.
As it happens, the Gazette has been growing exponentially faster than the Breeze and is much more secure with financing, as the number of readers helps support the paper and, in fact, has allowed it to grow larger in every issue.
Because of this support, the Gazette was already supporting the Breeze, which has led to a review of how the Breeze operates. As any small business owner can attest, you sometimes have to prune ideas you don’t want to let go of. And the free paper model of the Breeze didn’t work.
In September, it was decided to push the publication of The Breeze to every other week. There just were not enough stories for an eight-page paper, and even with the support from the Gazette, it still was a loss for the company.
Many people missed their weekly paper and wanted to help bring it back. So we looked at going to the same model as the Gazette. The big issue is that the costs to print the Breeze are nearly as high as the Gazette (which is much larger), and trying to charge a subscription would cost pretty much the same as the Gazette, if not more.
Finally, the decision was made to make the Augusta Breeze a part of the Great Falls Gazette. Keeping its masthead in the paper and being reduced to a smaller footprint. Because some things like the puzzle page and comics were shared with the Gazette already, we have fewer pages but the same information. Also, less time is taken with separate layout, editing, distribution, etc.
By being part of the Gazette, loyal Breeze readers are afforded more information from our part of the state, so there is more value in the subscription, and it exposes more of Augusta to Great Falls, which is only an hour away.
At this time, Allen’s Manix and Latigo and Lace in Augusta will be carrying retail copies of the paper, and some of the businesses in the little town by the mountains have some copies for people to enjoy. Mail subscriptions are available anywhere in the country, and those living in the town of Augusta have the option of hand delivery. All subscriptions can be handled via mail or over the telephone by calling (406) 604-8929.
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..."
