If you live in the Smithfield town limits and subscribe to our newspaper, be sure to check out the spring edition of the Municipal Mailer in today’s edition. The town’s semiannual newsletter is packed with helpful information every citizen needs to know.

If you live in the town limits and don’t subscribe, we sent you a complimentary copy of this week’s edition for two reasons: to make sure you received a copy of the Municipal Mailer and to give you a taste of what you’d get every week if you subscribed to your hometown newspaper.

An informed citizenry is fundamental to a healthy democracy, and when it comes to local government, news and information are not nearly as plentiful as at the state, national and international levels. Many lament low participation in local elections, and I take the point. But as tragic as not voting at all is casting an uninformed or underinformed vote.

The Smithfield Times has published for more than a century with a primary purpose of keeping residents of Smithfield, Isle of Wight and Surry informed about their community. We occasionally publish a story of regional or statewide interest if space permits, but most weeks our pages are filled entirely with stories about this community: the activities of local governments, public and private school happenings, civic affairs and a vibrant arts scene.

As its publisher, I’m more than a little biased, but at $30 per year, which works out to 57 cents a week, a Times subscription is quite the bargain. Fifty-seven cents won’t even get you a candy bar or bag of chips these days.

It should be noted that subscriptions are more important than ever to a community newspaper’s financial health. We are blessed to still be the marketing method of choice for many local businesses, and their advertisements still pay the lion’s share of our bills. If today’s edition is a little heavier than usual, credit goes to the local advertisers who wanted to be part of an edition that was mailed to every household in the town. I encourage you to peruse their ads and support them.

Yet, other forms of advertising, such as chain stores’ preprinted circulars, have largely dried up in a digital world. Healthy subscription revenue helps fill that void.

If you don’t already subscribe and enjoyed this complimentary copy, shoot us an email at info@smithfieldtimes.com and we’ll give you $10, or 33%, off your first year of delivery.

If you already subscribe, thank you very much. Be sure to check out the Municipal Mailer, a first-rate town newsletter that we are pleased to help produce. This is our second issue of a new partnership with the town that saves the staff at Town Hall some valuable time and taxpayers some money. The town provides the informative content and we design, print and distribute the newsletter.

If you’re a town resident and don’t see the Municipal Mailer inside today’s edition, drop us a line at the email address above or call us at 757-357-3288 and we’ll get you one right away.

 

Steve Stewart is publisher of The Smithfield Times. His email address is steve.stewart@smithfieldtimes.com.