View From the Republic
We're
just giving it away
Now it's the Free Republic, as we continue looking for the
way to make this whole thing work.
Everyone who reads the paper does myself and all other
contributors an enormous honour, because we know there's lots
more out there you could be reading instead
Evolution is the product of accidental mutations. As we are
a newspaper keenly interested in evolving, we open ourselves to
the possibility for accidents of the sort that cause mutations,
one of which might be key to our survival.
As the publisher of The Republic, I have occasionally used
this space to reveal to readers the inner workings of our
fledgling independent newspaper. My purpose has been to
construct something of a diary of the project because I think
the process of establishing an independent newspaper is an
interesting story in and of itself, and I believe relating that
story as it mysteriously unfolds in real time in the pages of
that very same newspaper is a doubly interesting way to tell
it. What's more, I have no idea how this story turns out.
This issue, number 64, brings one of the most major changes
to the newspaper in its 30 month history. We have decided to
convert The Republic into a free newspaper. Like all the
changes we have gone through, this might make for a terrible
accident. It may very well spell the end of the project. But
there is also the chance it might be the key to our survival.
Humans at some point lost their fur, which by the sounds of it,
should have been the end of the line for humans. Who knew it
would lead to our species becoming masters of the planet?
When I launched The Republic in November of 2000, I had
never been inside any newspaper office. I had never seen a
printing press. I did not know what "cut and paste" meant,
neither in the old-fashioned scissors and tape sense, nor in
the digital computer program sense. Naturally, under these
circumstances, I made a lot of mistakes.
It has been a trial-and-error process ever since, and at
times it feels as though there's been as many errors as trials.
On the other hand, this is issue 64, and all 63 previous issues
have been out on time every time, and we must be doing
something right, because the death rate for independent
newspaper launches over their first two years is roughly
100%.
The Republic has earned a strongly loyal readership over
this time, in an environment frankly overpopulated with reading
and news choices. Everyone who reads the paper does myself and
all other contributors an enormous honour, because we know
there's lots more out there you could be reading instead.
The paper has humbly enjoyed the real and crucial support of
advertisers who also have a wide range of choices, including no
advertising at all, but who have shown with cold hard cash
their support for what we're trying to build with The Republic.
Advertising is not a crucial business expense like rent is, but
each and every one of the sponsors you see in our pages feels
that advertising in The Republic is a crucial community
expense, and they've been generous in showing their
support.
Most of all, the volunteers who have laboured in all aspects
of the paper, from writing it to stamping subscribers' labels
onto it and trucking it to the post office, have been stoic in
the face of enormous difficulties and tedium. We all happily
produce it because, like the readers who read it and the
advertisers who support it, we simply feel necessity obligates
us. The country needs a paper something like this one, and
altogether, we're going to create it.
Why we've chosen to convert The Republic to a free paper is
because we want a much bigger, and constantly growing,
readership, and we've found by trial and error that selling it
to readers doesn't work well enough. We've enjoyed the support
of a wholesale distributor and many shopkeepers who were
generous in finding space in their stores for the paper. But we
would need a hundred stores in each of Canada's ten biggest
cities to sell the paper at a fast clip just to reach what I
regard as a minimally acceptable circulation of 10,000. It
can't be done, it turns out.
In tests we've run distributing the paper for free at select
locations, we've discovered that this method can probably reach
10,000 readers in Vancouver alone within a few issues. We'll
lose the revenue we earned from selling the paper, but we feel
we can keep the project afloat with increased advertising
revenue from advertisers who support us, and who also enjoy
reaching substantially greater numbers of readers.
We have a number of subscribers who prepaid sometime within
the last year, and who are therefore owed something in return.
We'll continue to offer new subscriptions and honour existing
ones, because we think a number of people will continue to
enjoy the paper delivered to their homes, whether it's free or
not, and of course we have a number of subscribers living
elsewhere besides Vancouver who won't have the choice (yet) to
pick it up for free. To those subscribers who wish to get a
refund for that portion of their subscription remaining from
this issue forward, simply contact us and we'll happily settle
the difference.
Getting the small packets of papers out to the 150 or so
free locations around the city every second Thursday or Friday
won't be easy. It won't be hard, either. In our tests, we've
found one car driver can service 30 locations in two hours.
Five people willing to volunteer two hours every two weeks to
drive the paper around would suffice to get the distribution
nut cracked. If you're interested in joining a different
Coalition of the Willing, contact me right away at
magpie@lynx.bc.ca We need you.
To all our readers, subscribes, advertisers, volunteers, and
supporters, thank you for making this wonderfully twisting and
turning experience possible, and I hope to be reporting great
news of our heightened success in the months ahead. To all our
new readers, welcome to the paper, and don't be shy about
writing in your comments. This is a purely reader-oriented
paper, and it exists for no reason besides your edification.
Let us know if you like it or not.
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