Since November there have been quite a few changes throughout the Port Arthur News operation.
Some liked by our readers and some not. However, we are still seeing an increase of 25 new subscribers each week. That’s a first in a long time. The feedback coming from those new subscribers is that they approve with our approach of focusing more on local content.
They understand that community newspapers need to be just that, a community newspaper. The know that national and worldwide news can be found elsewhere. The only place to get local news for Port Arthur and Mid County is in the Port Arthur News. Not just the topic and a 30 second blurb that runs over and over multiple times a day, but the full story, or at least as much as is available by the time we go to press.
You may have noticed changes to our website www.panews.com. As many of you will remember, approximately two years ago our former company added paywalls to all websites they were associated with. That limited access to residents that are not subscribers. This irritated quite a few folks that previously enjoyed reading the website when they could. Now, along with a new look to the website that is more reader friendly, the paywall has also been removed. We hope you enjoy it.
The TV Guide has been a hot topic! As newspapers across the country are starting to eliminate their TV guides, due to the on-screen TV guide most cable companies now provide, companies that had previously supplied those TV grids to newspaper are eliminating themselves one by one. This was the issue presented to the Port Arthur News just months ago. The carrier that we had been using was not going to be available to us moving forward. We had to make a decision — either not have TV guide information at all or create some form of TV listing with what we did have access to.
We opted for the latter to at least give our readers some form of TV information. I don’t know how long we will have access to these grids with the ongoing changes these companies are going through. But, until they are no longer available to us, we will continue to print them.
In the coming weeks, I will be announcing some BIG news about the Port Arthur News, its future within our communities and how this BIG change will ultimately affect you as well — for the better! It’s been an exciting six months between the changes and the growth the Port Arthur News is seeing and I only expect that to continue.
I enjoy receiving your emails and try to reply to each and every one. Even if you don’t agree with us or me, I want to hear from you. So please keep them coming. See you next week!
Email me at rich.macke@panews.com. Follow me on Twitter @rich_macke