A few months ago, the Senior Perspective entered its 26th year. Each year, we have added new readers. In 2019, we will not only be looking to add more readers, we are also adding a whole new edition.
The new Valley edition of the Senior Perspective will launch in February. It will serve the areas around Fargo, Moorhead, Detroit Lakes, Park Rapids, Menahga and Frazee (among others). A few cities that are currently receiving the Runestone edition will start getting the new Valley edition starting in February. These cities will include Pelican Rapids, Barnesville and Perham and some smaller communities in those areas.
We have had businesses and individuals from the new area contacting us for several years asking us when we would be coming to their area. Now we are happy to tell them that we are “coming soon!”
Over the last few months our team has been meeting with potential advertisers, letting them know about the move and gauging their interest in our new edition. The response has been very good, which is encouraging and exciting.
We have also been mapping out our distribution route in those areas, which amounts to stopping by places like grocery stores, pharmacies, cafes, senior centers, clinics and senior living facilities and asking if they would like us to drop off the papers each month. This process has sort of a Lewis and Clark feel to it as we set off to explore new downtowns. Again, the response has been very good. We will continue to ramp up our distribution of the Valley edition over the next few months. Businesses in the new area have been receiving the Runestone edition the last two months but that will switch over to the Valley edition next month. The circulation of the new edition will be expanded quickly over the next few months.
This column isn’t just about announcing the new edition. I would also like to ask for your help. If you know anyone who lives in the new territory, I would encourage you to tell them about the newspaper and ask them if they would consider submitting stories, story ideas, poems, recipes or photos for the new paper. We have a lot of great contributors in our current territory but are just starting to build connections in the new territory. We want to make sure the Valley edition has a very local feel to it (like the others) and so we rely on our readers to help us with those contributions. Any help that you can offer in this area would be greatly appreciated!
We are looking for someone to help with delivery in some of these areas. If you know someone who lives in the new area that might be interested in helping with a route, please let me know.
We are looking for recommendations on new locations. If you know of a good location in one of the new cities, please let us know, and we will contact them.
We are looking for feature writers around Detroit Lakes and Park Rapids. If you know someone who might be interested, have them contact me right away. My contact info is on Page 5A.
We are looking for potential advertisers. One of the biggest ingredients of our success has been the impact we have been able to make for our advertisers. Without advertisers, it would be impossible to offer a free newspaper for 26 years (or even a month or two). If you have a connection with a business or organization in the new area who would benefit from promoting themselves in our newspaper, please let us know about them… or let them know about us.
There is a map of the new Valley edition on Page 5A. This map may change slightly over the next year or two, just as the shape of the other editions changed as the editions grew and evolved in those areas.
If you would like to get a taste of the new edition, you can sample the paper with a six-month subscription for just $11. We will deliver it right to your door. This offer is valid through May 1, 2019.
The first copies of the Valley edition will be delivered around Feb. 1, 2019.
Cookbooks Sales
Thousands of the Sr. Perspective cookbook have been sold in the last month and a half, but there are still a some available at area stores. Visit our web page to see all the locations that carried the book this year. The locations are scattered throughout the state. Be sure to call before driving very far to pick up the book…just to make sure they have not sold out.
If you are unable to find a book, you can also order them directly from us. For ordering information, go to page 17A.
Supplies are limited in both the stores and here at the office, so if you are interested in a book, now is the time to grab one.
Happy New Year
From all of us at Sr. Perspective, we would like to wish you a sincere Happy New Year’s. Thanks for supporting our paper in 2018. We are looking forward to even bigger and better things in 2019. Thanks!