Where's the Williamsburg Calendar?

As Williamsburg, the Cove and community journalism changes, the Herald must change with them.

One of the changes that we are making is to wrap the Williamsburg calendar into the Cove Calendar.

We’re trying to simplify and clarify the Herald’s journalism offerings both in print and online. This is necessary for several reasons.

One is that local advertisers are becoming hard to find. This isn’t just a result of the coronavirus. This is a much different issue and has been going on for a longer time.

The real problem

The problem is that some large online tech firms like Google and Facebook have moved aggressively to find and entice local advertisers to advertise on their services. Some local businesses have decided to do so and some, as a result, have either stopped advertising in the Herald or have cut back.

This has a strong negative effect on the Herald’s ability to make money to pay its bills.

While buying a subscription to the Herald does help pay the cost of producing a weekly newspaper and website, it does not cover all of the cost. In fact, if the Herald charged 100 percent of what it cost to plan, produce, print and deliver a Herald edition, the cost of a year’s subscription to the Herald would probably be about $120.

So, if a subscription currently costs only $40, but it costs $120 to create, then who is paying the other $80?

Advertisers, of course. Pretty much since the first newspaper rolled off the press, advertising has helped subsidize the cost of providing the paper to the subscriber.

So as advertisers decide to give their money to Facebook and Google instead of the Herald, the Herald has less money coming in.

Less money coming in creates several problems here at the Herald.

One, it means that we’ve had to cut back our staff. While the Herald used to have two full-time reporters, we’re now down to one. And those reporters have to do other weekly tasks because we’ve also had to cut back on our front-office staff.

Second, it has made it harder for the Herald to find sponsors for the Williamsburg calendar and the Williamsburg page. Once upon a time, I’m told, Williamsburg businesses almost fought over the chance to sponsor the calendar and the page. But as Williamsburg has seen its business community shrink so has the interest in – and maybe the ability to – sponsor the Williamsburg page and calendar.

All of this means, unfortunately, that changes must be made.

It’s not bad

Williamsburg will still have its own page here in the Herald. It is the only community that the Herald covers which gets its own page every week. We will maintain the Williamsburg page as long as we can. This is a salute to the Williamsburg community from the Herald, which recognizes the cohesive spirit that keeps the town fighting.

Also, Williamsburg events will still be accepted and still published in the Herald. They will appear in two places:

• The Cove Calendar, which usually appears on Page B-1 of the Herald, and

• In the community calendar at http://www.mcheraldonline.com.

We at the Herald strive to minimize the effects of situations like this, but to some extent, we are at the mercy of larger forces. There’s not much we can do about lost business. We fight for what we can, but when decisions are made, they’re made. Maybe some of those advertisers will realize what they’re doing to the Herald and the community, but I doubt it. Businesses make decisions for many reasons and I don’t see this one being reversed anytime soon.

If you have any questions or comments, I’ll be happy to discuss the decision with you. Please call 793-2144 and ask for Allan. Thank you.