I am proud to be a free community newspaper publisher. For those of you who don’t understand the differences between print, well, let’s just say the paid dailies have not helped our industry. There is an important distinction between free papers and paid dailies – (they) have lost a significant amount of readers and we haven’t.
Why? There is huge competition in regional, national and world news with today’s technology. Dailies are not the go-to source any more. We have watched the decline of print dailies and closure of many giants in the industry because of these changes. Community newspapers do not fall into this category – it simply doesn’t apply to us. We continue to do what we’ve always done – deliver local news to our readers’ homes. Some advertisers will buy into the newest shiny bauble presented to them. We can no longer expect advertisers to come to us just because we exist. We must practice what we preach and continue to educate our readers to support their local businesses. I would like to take this opportunity, during Free Community Newspaper Month, to thank our readers and advertisers for recognizing our value.   Julie Main
Editor
Grupo de periódicos comunitarios de San Diego