Start the Presses: The paper in the community
On Thursday, I spent a pleasant morning and early afternoon hand-delivering copies of our new Montrose/La Crescenta edition. I’m pleased to say that everyone — literally everyone — I spoke to was pleased about our newest initiative, with many saying they’re looking forward to seeing it each week.
As at any small paper, staffers are called on to perform a number of tasks. I guess I can add “delivery boy” to my titles now. I’ll be handing out papers, mostly along Honolulu Avenue two more times, on Feb. 27 and March 6. After that point, I’m going to leave it to the guys with the big trucks.
Walking around the neighborhood was good exercise, and good for me emotionally. It’s fun to talk to people who have such pride in their area, and with so many who just seem happy to be alive. It’s refreshing.
It served another purpose as well. As I have announced a couple times, the news racks of both the Burbank Leader and Glendale News-Press are being removed. Many already are, and the ones that are left are empty.
Instead, the papers are now available in Los Angeles Times news racks, and in single-copy sales of The Times in delis, grocery stores and other retail outlets. The staff here — including myself — are reaching out to shops and restaurants all over town to see who wants to get free deliveries of the Leader and News-Press.
For us, it seems like a win-win. That is, people will know where to find a free copy of the paper, and retailers will have one more reason for people to visit their place of business. If you own such a place and want to be put on our route, drop me a line at dan.evans@latimes.com.
I realize many people want to know when these deliveries will start. Although I do not have an exact time frame, I have been assured by the circulation people (the guys with the big trucks) that it will be soon. As soon as we have a finalized list, we will make sure to spread the word.
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Since my last column, we had our first meeting of the News-Press’ Community Advisory Board. It was very well attended, and I received a significant amount of feedback, both what we do well and what we could do better.
I’m in the midst of compiling the group’s thoughts, and emailing it around to make sure I’ve adequately captured their intent. After I’ve reached a consensus, I have pledged to publish their points in the paper, something I expect I’ll be able to do in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you’d like to have your say, it is always welcome, either publicly — as a letter to the editor — or privately to me.
And, next month, we will be convening a similar group for the Burbank Leader. Many people have expressed an interest in being involved from the Media City, but there is room for a couple more. (I’m sorry to say the News-Press group is closed.) If you’re interested, drop me a line with the following information:
Name
How long you’ve lived in Burbank
How often you read the paper
Do you read it in print, online or both?
I’m looking forward to what the Burbank group has to say, and I’m already getting started on the suggestions made by the Glendale one. Thanks for caring about the paper, your community and your city.
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DAN EVANS is the editor. He can be reached at (818) 627-3234 or dan.evans@latimes.com.