From the editor

Online or paper?

Tue, 07/03/2018 - 8:30am

How do you read the local news? Do you read it mostly online or do you wait for the newspaper to arrive from the printer on Wednesday afternoons? Ever since we went fully online six years ago, I have struggled each week with what to leave in and what to leave out -- not so much in the winter time when not a lot is going on. With the internet, we can, and do, publish news from outside our main readership area, but sometimes there are stories from those areas we think would be of interest to our paper readers. Also, the internet gives us unlimited space for photos -- for example, this week's coverage of Windjammer Days includes over 400 photos.

We are somewhat dependent on how many pages we print in relationship to the amount of advertising we receive. We, too, are a business with employees who have to be paid, printers that have to be paid, supplies have to be purchased, newspapers have to be mailed, and more. So, printing all the news we receive and lots of photos is sometimes cost prohibitive.

I find it interesting how some people about my age -- 60ish -- and older do not read the newspaper online, while some my age and older don't read the printed version at all now. To be truthful, our subscription numbers have dropped some but we still have a lot of readers from out of state who like to receive either the print version or the electronic (e-edition) version.

Then you have the younger set who either read the local news online or they don't read either the online or print version. Why? Who knows? It was a different era, but I started reading the Boothbay Register in grammar school.

Then there are those people who can't quite figure out our Morning Catch emailed program. Each morning around 9, an email blast featuring the past day's news, ads, calendar listings and more is sent out to people who have signed up for the program. We are working on the design -- especially since we had one reader who thought we were writing too many stories on a restaurant owner's businesses. Those listings are online advertising, not staff-written stories. We are looking at perhaps labeling that part of the Catch as advertising so those people won't be confused.

Whichever way you get the news, online or in print, we hope you keep supporting us and give a pat on the back once in a while. We like that.