A little history of the paper...The Valley Mirror began publication in 1981, serving the communities of Homestead, Lincoln Place, Munhall, West Homestead, West Mifflin, and Whitaker. In 1999, it merged with the Braddock Free Press, which served the communities of Braddock, Braddock Hills, Chalfant, East Pittsburgh, Forest Hills, North Braddock, Rankin, and Swissvale.
I've been working at The Valley Mirror for a little over three years. It was considered a tabloid style paper - a smaller, more compact size. This week we bumped up to a broadsheet style which added a few inches to its size and cut back our number of pages from 24 to 14. When you look at the papers side by side you can see the difference. It is real.
My editor had to make a tough choice. Change is always difficult and hard copy newspapers are not exactly a hot commodity these days. Plus, a large portion of our readership is of an older demographic, who have come to expect a particular product. We get calls from readers complaining when the Crossword Puzzle is omitted on a heavy news week.
At a time when many print papers are going by the wayside or switching to only digital editions it is truly remarkable that a paper like ours is still chugging along... and for a mere 50 cents a copy! When a new edition is put to bed each week - our barebones staff breathes a grateful sigh of relief. Another one on the books!
We do not have a website. We sometimes do Facebook. I often mail out papers or make personal deliveries when people featured in an article do not live near a store that carries our paper. We have a couple thousand subscribers, many of whom live out of state - people who have moved out of town but still want news from back home. It is refreshing that something like this still exists. We are a dinosaur in a 21 century world, just waiting for the asteroid to crash.
My parents still lament the loss of their Daily News. The McKeesport paper was shut down almost two years ago. It was a daily paper and it contained local news, obituaries and happy ads that kept people connected. There have been a few outlets that have tried to fill the gap, but it is not the same. The online sources are often overlooked by an older population that is not going on the interwebs for their news. (Although there are some Baby Boomers who are hip to the information highway. Good for them because that's the way this bus is heading.)
Last night my editor sent me a photo of what the new front page looks like. It was a wonderful sight to behold. The photos are bigger and brighter. The text is a little bigger. There is more of an information buffet on the front page and is was hard to look away. Again, a sigh of relief. Maybe it will be ok. Maybe our readers will like this new format and adapt as life often calls us to do. Maybe, just maybe, they'll continue to pluck down their 50 cents each week keeping our rag vital within the communities we represent.
Just a moment ago, the phone rang in the office. It was one of our loyal subscribers. She said she just left the grocery store and there was a bit of a frenzy near The Valley Mirror newspaper rack. People were excited and talking about how good the paper looked. She couldn't wait to get her copy in the mail. She said we should have done this a long time ago.
Maybe, just maybe, there is a future in this newspaper business.
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| Out with the old in with the new and improved Valley Mirror |
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