Now that the 2018 general election has passed, we would like to thank our readers for choosing us to keep you informed.
The Sedona Red Rock News has served our community for the last 55 years and we plan on doing so for decades to come. Readers’ support lets us provide accurate and up-to-the-minute coverage of our community and readers rely on us to provide them news better than any other news source in the Verde Valley.
Sedona is split between Yavapai and Coconino counties, with elections run by two county recorders, meaning there is some arithmetic involved on the back end to determine the results for local candidates and propositions for the city of Sedona, Sedona Fire District and Sedona-Oak Creek School District.
Several Sedona area elected officials and leaders asked us to text them when our story was posted to our website because they knew we would have the results compiled faster than any other source in the area. Likewise, readers know we have these results and are willing to do the math to post them as quickly and accurately as we can enter them into a spreadsheet we built explicitly for this purpose.
Readers know that we publish the local news they want to read, attend the meetings they cannot, interview interesting figures around our communities, publish positive stories about local good works, dig deep into tough, complex stories and have the contacts within local governments to get information quickly and accurately.
For instance, after a suspect in the Verde Villages barricaded a home and regional SWAT units surrounded it late Wednesday, Nov. 7, reporter Jon Hecht — who was covering a Camp Verde Town Council meeting — relayed information to our newsroom from the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office while photojournalist Daulton Venglar shot photos from the scene, allowing us to notify residents in the area why law enforcement had cordoned off the area and called in a helicopter overhead.
In the span of three hours, that brief news story collected 12,193 views, 111 comments and 270 shares as residents used our news coverage to keep each other updated about the unfolding events. By the morning of Thursday, Nov. 8, it had more than 24,000 views.
Major newspapers around the county report slowly falling subscription numbers because most of them cover the same national and international news stories readers can find online or through hundreds of competitors.
However, small local newspapers like ours, that focus tightly on their communities only, can provide information readers can’t find anywhere else. Local newspapers report that subscriptions are holding steady or increasing since the Great Recession.
Advertisers notice this, too. On average, small town, regional and mom-and-pop businesses that advertise in their local newspapers tend to survive longer and are more profitable over the long haul than those who rely on word-of-mouth or social media for their marketing.
Advertisements in local newspapers are seen weekly by thousands of readers, who come across them while reading the newspaper for local goings-on. Conversely, online customers have to actively search for businesses they may want to patronize. Viewing an online ad requires readers to later recall the ad they saw while newspaper readers can clip out and physically hold the ad they may want to take advantage of later.
From an editor’s perspective, the more ads we run in an edition, the bigger our newspaper is, which gives us more editorial space to place news stories and photos to inform our readers. So, we sincerely thank the advertisers who support us because they allow us to get more news, more press releases and more great photos into the hands of our readers.
Our tremendous readership and strong advertising support also lets us have the freedom to publish special sections like our annual Red Rock Country History Edition, biannual artscenes, eight Visitors Guides, two holiday Gift Guides, special anniversary sections for organizations like the Sedona Arts Center and Sedona Fire District and our biannual Lifestyles of Sedona magazine.
Without the support of our loyal subscribers and advertisers, we would not be able to do all that we do. We thank you all for letting us provide you with your community’s news.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
