LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY If you have not been able to tell from previous posts I am fairly forthcoming and transparent to my readers. So please allow me a moment to share a bit about my business and where we stand. I feel I have a passion for the community newspaper business. I was compelled to launch a newspaper, a trade I knew nothing about a few years ago, because I recognized a disconnect between community and newspaper. Whether owners, editors, or reporters, someone seemed to be picking and choosing what THEY felt was important and disregarding the rest. As I learned the business and became more familiar with the many happenings in the area I realized that I was on to something. I made decisions to expand and to rebrand a couple of times as I tried to create a company that stands out from others in meeting community demand. This is how I ended up with a newspaper in Grayling. I see so much happening and so much potential and very little promotion from any newspaper. And to me a newspaper should be at the heart of the community, not on the sidelines. In the past 8 weeks we have covered 119 stories that are published. We have also published just as many press releases and announcements for area organizations. We have been all over the county in an effort to provide coverage and present the community in a positive light to readers and to share all of the hard work that is going on in the community. And the feedback from the community has been phenomenal. I truly believe I am on the right track in that aspect. Here is where the story turns. I jumped into the Grayling Post relying on anticipated revenue, not in hand capital. Maybe I naively assumed or perhaps just hoped that the demand was great enough that we would be able to prove in our first several issues that we not only are willing to publish a newspaper but that we are willing to provide a desired service to the community. Unfortunately it is not enough. I am now questioning myself as to my expectations and perhaps my “spur of the moment” decision in regard to entering into this venture without capital and /or financial backing. I am, once again, taking from my family and causing them to suffer financially as I chase this career that I have convinced myself is for me. And as I sit here and think about all of this and I look at the financial burdens I have created I am not very proud of my decisions. I am struggling with the anxiety caused by not knowing what is to come or how it will get paid for. And with winter knocking on the door I am very concerned for my family’s needs. So today I am going to go over my resources in depth and look at how far behind this is putting me and make a decision that is best for my family, regardless of how foolish it will make me look as a business owner. As it looks now I will not be able to financially sustain this newspaper as I had anticipated. Should that be the case we will refund all of our subscribers and pay the Michigan Main Street program what we promised from newspaper sales. I am very grateful to all of the support and encouragement we have received. I wish this did not have to be about money because publishing a newspaper provides me a lot of pride and satisfaction. No matter what I decide please know that I believe that the communities in Crawford County have a lot to be proud of and deserve the support of a newspaper. I had no misconception as to the value of the community that I wanted to publish a newspaper about. In only 8 weeks we found nearly 120 stories to cover and I know we did not cover everything. So keep doing what you are doing as it is noticed. Thank you, Scott Marshall
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 15:16:30 +0000
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