It won’t be the first time I didn’t know what to do. A paper requires a lot of advertisements to publish. I knew when I bought the Big Sandy paper that this would be a challenge for me. That’s not saying writing isn’t it, but I had been writing, learning, as I went for over almost two years when I bought the paper. I knew nothing about how to sell ads. I also knew that Big Sandy didn’t even have enough businesses to place ads to pay for the process of printing, so I had to find and sell the paper to prospective businesses.
It takes about 43% to 45% of the paper to be ads to pay for the expenses of the paper. I’ve heard from the residence of Big Sandy that they have noticed new advertisers. Please go to the advertisers. Or somehow let them know you saw their ad. They keep track of how the ad benefitted them, which is how they decide to run another ad.
I’ve also heard there are too many ads, that “the paper is just nothing but ads.” Some papers will have more ads, some will be short ads, but I learned you never say no to an advertiser, you make it happen! So, this is my first 10-page Mountaineer. What I learned is I have to have articles waiting in the hopper for such an event.
At the time when I bought the paper, the Big Sandy Mountaineer was a consistent six-page paper. Currently, we have been consistent at eight pages. What determines the size of the paper is how many ads we have to pay for it. I do have some goals for the paper, and being a consistent 10-page paper is one of them, requiring more ads. Of course, with a 10-page paper, you need more articles to fill the paper.
So, to my surprise all of a sudden, last week we had too many advertisements, but as I said, you never have too many ads. It was just that I was leaving for four days, and all of a sudden needed more articles to fill the pages.
It’s a process of learning, a process of growing, a process you all have to do with me. Smile at my learning; it’s ok with me if you acknowledge I need to improve. But celebrate our growth.
