This Friday, the Great Falls Gazette officially brings home delivery of the printed news to Great Falls. Getting all the ducks lined up in a nice row has been a long process, and we’re very happy with the direction in which it is all going. And to be clear, if you have a small business and would like delivery to your shop or office, we are more than happy to deliver a paper!
We’re starting with the two largest routes of existing subscribers. In total, we have nine routes in Great Falls and will activate them one or two per week to ensure that our readers are looked after and that there are no hiccups. While home delivery costs us a little more, the control over the delivery means we do not have to try to track down missing papers, misdelivery, mutilated papers, etc. In the end, we will come up pretty much neutral on revenue. It is expected that in July, the Postal Service will have another large increase in the rates for mail delivery.
The Post Office has been very helpful and is still a great resource. However, we like having the white glove treatment for our subscribers, and those who wish to have Home delivery should be able to get their papers that way. All existing readers can choose their preference and are reminded that getting your preference to us quickly helps determine which routes get activated as soon as possible. Readers may contact us online, at the office in The Columbus Center (Old Columbus Hospital), via phone (406) 604-8929, or by email: subscriptions@gfgazette.com
What’s next? How about TWO papers every week? That’s right. Now that we have the office and have started home delivery, we have started developing a second edition of the paper. We’re putting the final touches on the new Weekday edition and should have a more complete announcement soon. This will help keep the news fresh without filling the paper with stuff many people don’t want.
For current subscribers, the first question I’m often asked is, “How will this work with my subscription?” The answer is that we’ve changed our billing slightly, giving subscribers more flexibility. We have gone to a better, more flexible method of managing subscriptions. This method allows us to pause a subscription or redistribute your papers between different plans at any time. You still get all the papers you paid for and can adjust things to fit your needs with little to no effort.
If you wish to pause your subscription, say you would like to go on vacation and don’t want the papers piling up in front of your house, you can pause the subscription. Maybe a friend or loved one is on the paper, and you’d like extra copies. We can exchange credits for current or back copies. Note, if we need to mail those copies, there IS a postage or shipping charge, but if you pick them up from our office or receive home delivery, it’s just a straight exchange; no wallet is needed!
Part of the new subscripition credit system is that we now will accept referrals. So if your friend calls up, set up a year subscription and gives us your name, you’ll get 5 credits (5 papers, $5 total cover price). If they set up a monthly, you get one credit. For more information about the referal program, check out the website!
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..."
