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Sign of the times

It’s a common reaction, but it’s far from an accurate one. When I tell people the Optimist will start publishing weekly, the response I typically get is a combination of sympathy and trepidation.

It’s a common reaction, but it’s far from an accurate one.

When I tell people the Optimist will start publishing weekly, the response I typically get is a combination of sympathy and trepidation. That’s because many interpret the move as the beginning of the end, that going from twice a week to once a week puts us on a slippery slope to oblivion.

I know I’m biased, but I’m having a hard time buying it.

There’s absolutely no doubt the Internet and social media have dramatically changed the media landscape in recent years, but that doesn’t spell the end of newspapers. It simply means they need to adapt to the new reality, which is exactly what we’re doing.

If I may be so bold, I believe that readers still want the content that we provide; they want to know what’s going on in their community and what’s on sale in their local stores. The difference now is that an increasing number of them are looking to access that information in a 21st century way, which is hardly surprising given the instantaneous world we live in.

It’s why the Optimist website set a record for page views in April, only to surpass that total in May and again this month. It’s clear that more and more readers are consuming our content via smartphones and computer screens so it only make sense we would increase the emphasis we put on that aspect of our operation.

That doesn’t mean print is going away anytime soon because there are still a great many people who prefer to get their news that way, but by going to once a week distribution we’re positioning ourselves to better serve both sets of readers moving forward.

Still don’t believe me and figure the Optimist isn’t going to make it to its 100th birthday four years from now? Well, let me tell you about a couple of our sister papers, the Vancouver Courier and the Richmond News, which have both converted to once a week and are in better financial health now than they’ve been in years. Both papers have even added staff to their editorial departments since the move as they continue to increase their online presence.

The bottom line is that newspapers are information companies and that’s not going to change, although how we get you that content will continually evolve in an ever-changing world.