Jean Hincks
The Progress
Print is dead.
But if it is dead then why am I still here?
When radio came along, they said print was dead.
When TV came along, they said print was dead.
When the Internet came along, for sure print was dead.
So why are we still here?
Because we are an adaptable and resilient bunch of people, and because we’d like to think you still need us.
Are people still reading our paper? Yes they are.
Are people getting their news differently? Absolutely.
The baby boomers (those of us know who we are) can’t wait to get our paper. Why?
To read the obituaries of course! That, and to find out what our local politicians have said today, what our local school board trustee has said today, what our local arts community is doing, and who won the Chiefs game and everything in between.
And, boy, do we get upset when we miss our paper. I know because after a snowstorm or two, the phone starts ringing from people wanting to know where the heck it is!
Then there’s the Generation X. Ages 38-52. They’re in a dilemma because they still like to read the paper to find out what’s going on, but they also like to be out there on social media to show all their friends their new toys and trips they are on.
The Millennials, ages 23-37: Tough crowd. Phone attached to one hand; believe everything they read on line and an attention span of nine seconds and the fastest texters known to man. I’m still on my first two words and my daughter has a small paragraph typed out. I resort a lot to characters because I get exhausted texting with one finger. I’m a better talker than texter.
The good news is, we have something for everyone!
Print for the more educated crowd (that’s us).
Online for the Generation X’ers. (educated too but sometimes introverts).
Social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and mobile for the young ones, and of course the middle age and even some of us baby boomers.
Our company employees over 180 award-winning journalists. They get their facts right and you know you can always count on them bringing you accurate and in-depth news.
Where do you find out about individuals on the brink of greatness, hard issues like crime and your local sports teams scores, game times? The Progress, that’s where.
Something you may not know: the daily newspapers, the TV stations and radio stations, get their news from us. They cruise our website and social media feeds all hours of the days to find out what’s going on in our community because they do not have local reporters on the ground in our community.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, we give you the latest breaking news. And we know people are reading our social media because almost half a million pages are viewed each month on our website alone. We have over 13,000 people who follow us on Facebook. Our reporters together have over 5,000 followers on twitter.
Local advertisers still believe in us. Mertin, O’Connor, Chilliwack Ford, Mark’s, Fortin’s, Grand Pappy’s and I could go on for hours.
National advertisers still believe us. Walmart, Canadian Tire, Save-on-Foods, London Drugs, Shoppers Drug, Home Depot and on and on. They’ve done their research and know that their consumers are still reading the local community newspapers so that’s how they get their messages out to you.
They believe and so do we.
We support this community by donating over $500,000 per year in advertising.
We attend events.
We cover your stories.
We live in this community
We work in this community.
We pay taxes in this community.
We employ residents of this community.
We love this community.
We are not just a newspaper anymore, we are a multimedia company. We’ve adapted to give all readers what they want.
Print – digital – online – social media – flyers – classifieds – contesting and more.
And, that, my friends, is why we are still here.
Jean Hincks is publisher of the Chilliwack Progress