After a four-week absence (two weeks to clean up and two weeks to start up) the Four-Town Journal, under direction of new Publisher, Ryan Stanko, is back.
As you will see it is very much the local newspaper that you have come to expect over the past 38 years, but with some new twists which we believe will make it even better.
Perhaps the most noticable difference for you, our readers, is the date that you receive the Four-Town Journal.
For many years you’ve received it on Wednesday but we will now be distributing it to the majority of our subscribers and dealers on Thursday. This is because we have switched press plants and are now being printed in Wainwright, Alberta.
The paper will be printed Wednesday evening and trucked to Melville overnight where we will pick it up and bring it back to our Churchbridge office for redistribution to local post offices and dealers.
The other major change is that we are now offering a choice in how you want the Four-Town Journal to be delivered to you.
The core will remain the paper version because many still prefer to have that paper in hand when they’re checking out the local news.
The subscription price for the print edition will remain as it was at $42, plus $2.10 GST for $44.10 ($41 for seniors plus $2.05 GST for $43.05).
But for those who want their news delivered in a digital format we are providing that version as well. A digital edition with online access is available for $35 and $1.75 GST for $36.75.
If you want both print and digital with online access, we have a special package for that at $60 plus $3 GST for $63 per year.
For our tech-savy readers, there is a mobile phone app available as well. Our Google Play app is released already while the Apple iOs app is coming in the next couple of weeks.
The benefit of subscribing digitally is that you can get the news immediately after it’s happened with the digital version or mobile phone app. The paper edition is great to read on a weekly basis, but some readers would like their news on a daily basis as well.
“We want to make the paper accessible to all of our readers, which these options will do,” said Stanko.
“With this we have a version of the Four-Town Journal for everyone.”
In addition to that change we are reaching out to Esterhazy which has been without its own paper for two years. We will be opening a small office, one day a week, and will be providing coverage to local events as our schedule allows.
We will maintain our Langenburg (RM of Langenburg building) and Churchbridge (Prothero Ave.) offices but, to control costs as best as possible the hours in both offices will be reduced.
Langenburg will be open Tuesday and Friday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Churchbridge will be open Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 to 11:30 a.m.
The Esterhazy office at 458 Main Street will be open Saturday mornings from 9 to 11:30 a.m.
Subscriptions are now due. A full page ad in this week’s edition of the paper has details on how to subscribe in person, or by mail, phone or email.