How well do you know your Gateway Gazette? by Tanya Thibodeau, Publisher

Happy New Year! With every New Year comes the long standing tradition of setting resolutions both on a personal level and often in business. Here at the Gazette we too believe in the tradition of setting resolutions that will enable us to better meet the needs of our clients and our readers. Recently, it has been brought to our attention that there may be some gaps in understanding what the Gateway Gazette represents. It's interesting how, as a business that has been serving areas of the Foothills for over seven years, we can easily become complacent in assuming that our audience is aware of the ins and outs of how the Gazette ticks – despite the fact that over the years we have experienced changes and growth in our readership. It is because of this that we felt it was appropriate to start 2012 off with the goal of reducing the informational gap that seems to have developed over time.
First let's start with some facts about the Gateway Gazette:

• locally, independently owned newspaper
• operated by a small staff of 4-6 people
• is not part of a larger conglomerate or any other publication
• focuses on hyper-local, “good news”
• does not cover mainstream “doom & gloom”
• revenue is solely derived from advertisers

Points about our Grassroots print edition:

• distributed via Canada Post, various Foothills businesses and our bright red, outdoor newsstands
• inserted into every mailbox from Priddis to Longview
• reaches about 55% more residences than flyers
• subscriptions available to out of area readers

Points about our Grande online edition:

• is available online for free, in original print format
• articles fed into online blog
• blog is available via RSS feed
• qualifying ads also posted within our blog
• utilizes Social Media through Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In
• online exposure aids in providing a wider reach for our content and advertisers

So there you have it folks, the Gateway Gazette is YOUR community newspaper with the focus of bringing the GOOD of your community to you – both in print and online. And because of our very limited staff we not only accept, but encourage everyone to submit locally relevant articles that will be of interest to other residents – this helps you and us (with our limited staff) as we simply aren't able to personally attend to every article worthy of reaching the pages of the Gazette. In your travels also don't forget to let our advertisers know how much you appreciate receiving the Gazette by shopping locally and telling them that you saw their ad in the Gateway Gazette!
Next edition will give you some more insight into the content we print, where it comes from and the dos and don'ts of article submissions.