This issue of the Cheney Free Press is being hand-delivered to over 2,000 students in the Cheney School District this week. We plan to do the same in the near future in Medical Lake.
The reason we are taking this step is no secret at all.
The Free Press wants you to stay up to date with what’s happening across the big neighborhood that makes up the West Plains. And there’s no better way than with this newspaper.
The Cheney School District is one of the largest geographically in the state of Washington. But depending where you live, you might feel — and actually might be — a resident of Spokane or Airway Heights.
In a small way we will help you solve part of this identity crisis with the help of our award-winning reporting and advertising staff.
And all it costs is $20 — the price of a couple of fast food lunches or a handful of stops for morning coffee — and you receive a year’s worth of the Free Press delivered to your mailbox for the next 52 weeks.
In addition to you knowing what’s happening in your community, for every subscription this promotion generates, the Free Press is donating back to the Cheney elementary school of your choice $5 as a general fundraiser for that school.
This way you will join thousands of others across the West Plains who depend on us to deliver news of all shapes and sizes.
You will learn about what’s going on with your city government. You can find out how the Cheney School District is spending your share of the several million dollars collected through property taxes.
You can learn about opposite ends of the community news spectrum ranging from church news to crime. As a Free Press subscriber you will be able to know about activities and sports in our schools.
You’ll find out about community celebrations such as the Cheney Rodeo, the Blue Waters Bluegrass Festival and more, all presented like no one else can, will, or has for well over 100 years.
When our reporters engage in casual conversation, people will often ask how things are going once they know they are speaking with a newspaper reporter. The stories of struggling newspapers are everywhere these days. But the troubled publications are largely daily papers who serve a bigger geographical area and wider demographics.
There has been a dramatic shift in the general makeup of the American family starting in the 1980s. No longer do they consist of a stay-at-home mother, 2.2 children and a father that came home from work at the same time every day.
People are not making daily newspapers the habit they once did, opting to get their news from other sources.
But publications like the Cheney Free Press, and “sister” publications within our ownership group such as the Davenport Times, Ritzville Adams County Journal or Spokane Valley News Herald generally do well and are surviving in an ever-changing market.
The reason for our relatively good health is pointed out in an article entitled “Four Ways Community Newspapers Get Audiences.” We focus specifically on the communities we serve and dig deeper into delivering news and information you’ll likely never find anyplace else.
Where dailies often have a more regional reach, community papers such as the Cheney Free Press narrow their focus to a smaller geographic area. For us it’s Cheney, Medical Lake, Airway Heights and in between.
In the “Four Ways” piece, they speak of how community papers stake their continued popularity by covering stories ranging from Little League to the opening of a new restaurant. For instance, the Cheney Free Press has been on top of the effort to save Cheney’s old train depot before the wrecking ball arrives.
People in the towns we cover know when they see us at meetings, events or sporting events that we are all about reporting the news of their community. And we make it so simple, delivering it all to your mailbox, saving you the time of going to look for it — if it’s there at all.
We’re proud of the slogan: “We’ve been filling scrapbooks since 1896.” But we know that we’ve been much more than that by recording the history of Cheney and the West Plains for 118 years.
Take advantage of that special subscription offer and stay in touch with your community in a way only the Cheney Free Press can provide.
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