HOT PURSUIT

If there’s one thing that has become apparent over the past year, it’s the fact that the Steele County Times is proving to be momentum worth reading.

Last fall I shared with you how this newspaper became Steele County’s top choice for local news by having more subscribers than the “daily” newspaper that has been around for decades in Owatonna. We’ve added at least another hundred subscribers since October, bringing us very close to crushing the 3,000 mark of paid readers. I’m hopeful we’ll accomplish that by the end of this year.

There isn’t a week that goes by without somebody new calling or coming into one of our offices either in Blooming Prairie or Owatonna seeking to subscribe for the first time. It’s gratifying to see such high interest in local news and humbling that people are trusting us to be their local news source.

And, contrary to what you may hear from time to time, local news is still important in people’s lives.

Many years ago, before we started growing so much, I developed the slogan “Always Local. All the Time.” It’s something that obviously resonates with our readers, and it holds us true to what we’re all about: providing quality local news for Steele County. Readers love to know they are going to receive a newspaper that’s 100% local news. We’re told it’s something that they can’t find anywhere else.

This week we’re providing nearly every household in Steele County a gift by sending out what’s known as a sample copy. It’s an excellent way for those who don’t subscribe to get to know us and what we offer. I’m confident that you will find we have the best interests of Owatonna, Blooming Prairie, Ellendale, Medford and smaller fringe communities in mind with our coverage every week. We have talented and experienced journalists covering all these communities.

Plus, just six weeks ago, we received 14 state journalism awards, including General Excellence, one of the top honors given out.

I’m confident that once you sample our paper, you’re going to wonder why you’re not receiving it every week. We can help with that by offering some great subscription specials, both for the print edition as well as the E-Edition, which can be accessed online.

The importance of focusing on local has also come to light through our social media and website offerings. Karen Hale has done a superb job for us over the past two years building an impressive following on Facebook, website and other social media platforms. Our website at www.steelecountytimes.com attracts more than 48,000 unique visitors and 4.5 million hits in one month, according to the most recent statistics from our web company. Hale always reminds me what makes the unique visitors number most impressive is that it’s far greater than the population of Steele County.

We currently offer E-Blast, which features breaking news alerts as well as a weekly newsletter summarizing what’s going to be in the print edition. There are about 3,000 people alone that receive the E-Blast. The open rate of the E-Blast is unusually high.

I hope all of this shows one thing. Newspapers can thrive in this challenging environment. Being hyper-local is my best defense to succeeding against the naysayers that have tried to put newspapers into the history books.

Come along for the ride and go in hot pursuit of discovering momentum worth reading.