Scarlette Merfeld
The last month has been full of
activity as we prepare for the July celebration.
We had high hopes of landing a national
sponsor but we just ran out of time and couldn’t nail down the
final approvals necessary to move forward with the national
organization we had been courting.
I wanted to make you aware of some
addition details to the information sent out last month. The
committee has developed a series of Free Community Paper promotional
ads. I am pleased to report that Graphic Designer Hank McAfee from
Tower Publications has done a great job on the layout of these ads
which are now up on the Free Community Paper Month Web site, http://paperchain.org/freepapermonth.html
The
created ads focus on the strength of our industry and readership. By
using the heading "Free Community Paper, The best things in life
are free". They personalize for our readers the concept of how
their community paper is keeping it super local.
I also want to remind publishers and
staff to try and get your city, town, or county government body to
make the Free Community Paper Month Proclamation, officially
proclaiming July as a special celebration of your paper. A copy of
the sample proclamation can also be found on the web site noted
above.
Remember, your
paper has made a great investment in your community and this
industry. Only you and your staff can help us bring that story alive
to your readers in this consolidated industry-wide effort. Please
consider active participation in the July 2014 Free Community Paper
Month. We hope our efforts to secure a national partner/sponsor are
buoyed by strong support from participating papers in 2014. If we
can’t demonstrate our unity with a program like this it becomes
difficult to prove it to an outside concern that our industry is
worth an investment.
Visit us on
Facebook and let us know your plans for Free Community Paper Month.
Thank you in advance for all you do to enhance the industry with
every 
