Commentary by Noah Kutz
Are you reading this online? Although we can’t tell how many of you actually read our print edition, it’s safe to say that the number of internet-goers is increasing.
Part of my job at Wrangler News is to develop ways to impact our community with the stories and articles we produce from our local operation in Tempe and West Chandler.
The reason we’ve stuck around in the neighborhood for so long is because we consistently reach the same community of readers with the interesting and informative local content written by local people, for local people.
So what’s new?
The quality of Wrangler News content will remain the same, but the method by which people consume their news will continually evolve.
Today, most younger folks enjoy gathering their daily info via social media and various online sources (I personally prefer the paper, no bias here).
In order to catch up with the scene, Wrangler News started to incorporate its own content into all things digital including websites, social media, email campaigns and more. Happily, we’ve seen consistent, strong growth in our online readership, yet still maintain our biweekly distribution of the print edition.
Compared to 2018, the Wrangler News website has seen a whopping 135 percent growth during the last nine months alone, and our email and social media subscribers have doubled since the beginning of the year.
Before 2018, most people might have seen one of our articles online and said, “Hey, I’ve seen that paper around before!” Today, it might be more common for someone to have read our content online before seeing it in print.
Does this mean we’re not printing newspapers anymore and shifting our attention to online matters only? Absolutely not.
Our growth online is simply an extension of our efforts to impact this community and bind ourselves even more closely together.
So, whether you’re reading this on the pages of our paper or on your smartphone, tablet or laptop, we’re happy to deliver truly local news to truly local people.
