Publishers Perspective – Progress
– By Josh Warburton –
Often we take action, and we’re not quite sure how it’s going to work out. Life is funny that way! It’s tough to predict, no matter what you do, to try to control it. But we do all make choices, and those choices often come back around to haunt us… or help us, as the case may be.
And I’ve made a lot of choices through our 25 years of publishing The Independent. And while I leave editorial decisions up to our editor, my duties include everything from the administrative level on down. And while we have a very competent distribution manager in Elliot Lockwood, who manages the distribution driver team and the distribution itself from pallets to racks, I have made most of the major distribution decisions over the years. That includes expanding the distribution from just the St. George area initially to Mesquite, Cedar City, Springdale, Hurricane Valley, and out to Kanab, areas we deliver to today. I’ve always believed that people will travel a little distance for events and entertainment that they enjoy. Including info for all the areas we distribute to, means that our entire audience has had the opportunity to read about performances from the likes of the Utah Shakespeare festival in Cedar City or the fun events held at the Mesquite casinos. Like Casapalooza, or say, Western Legends in Kanab.
It’s a fairly monumental effort to get The Independent delivered to over 300 racks in the space of about 36 hours. And those racks don’t magically appear by themselves; somebody has to get permission and place them, and before that somebody, (me), had to buy them.
And that goes back to one of the decisions I made early on. I realized we would need racks at most locations to be seen prominently and have a home where they (hopefully) stay neat and tidy.
So I made the conscious decision, starting 25 years ago, to invest in high-quality racks that would last. While nearly every other publication was out there with cheap wire racks, I admired the tubular steel racks that the Pioneer Shopper had at most of their distribution locations at the time. They were well-made and built to hold up in our harsh sunny climate. In my mind, it gave the impression they were here to stay, and they were, for decades until the classified business all but disappeared due to craigslist and other online options for people to advertise with.
So I took a hand drawing to McArthur Welding, who was more than happy to create racks just for us. They differed from the slanted rails of the red Shopper racks with strong curved corners not likely to catch on someone’s clothes when walking by, and I decided to do them in bright blue to make them stand out! The vast majority of those first-generation racks are still in circulation, albeit with new stickers. Most have been repainted from their original power coats, which held up remarkably well.
This year, and after a few years without the attention they’ve needed, we’ve been in the process of refreshing all of our racks with new stickers that reflect our current logos. We’ve also been refinishing all the old metal racks that need it with new paint jobs. This has been a slow process, but we are getting through them!
So if you see a “new” rack out there in the wild, it may be an “old” rack that’s been given new life thanks to its quality construction (and a bit of elbow grease). And if you spot a “weathered” rack of ours out there, please let us know so we can give it the attention it deserves. Here’s to making great long-term decisions.
Happy reading!
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