Best of two worlds

This is a tribute to far-seeing folks at The Camrose Booster. I’m glad to be a tiny part of  The Booster team. This column tells you one reason why.

First, a comment about local community papers.

In the early days of the Canadian prairies, as European settlers moved west and created villages and towns, some communities survived and thrived. Some did not.

One characteristic of communities that survived was this: some brave soul created a community paper, with news about local events and ads from local merchants. Communities with a local paper were more likely to survive than communities with no local paper.

Another historical reference. In years past, if you and your family moved to a new community, a friendly greeter would visit your home and welcome you to the community.

Nowadays, a home visit from a stranger may not be as welcome. But every week, one friendly visitor greets newcomers and old-timers in Camrose and the surrounding towns, villages and rural areas. Yep, it’s The Camrose Booster.

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At a time when community papers are dying across the country, every week The Camrose Booster brings you promotions from local businesses, local news and sports, opinion pieces and letters to the editor.

Here’s a fact of special interest to advertisers. An independent organization–Circulation Verification Council (CVC)–audits the circulation and readership of more than 3,000 community papers like The Camrose Booster. In records going back to 2001, the CVC reports that an average of 83 per cent of all Boosters delivered are opened and read by an average of 1.8 people each. You’re reading this, so you are one of 22,073 people expected to read this edition.

That high readership was true in 2001, before Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and all the other social media. It’s still true today.

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Early in the advent of electronic media, the Camrose Booster set up its website:  www.camrosebooster.com.

That’s not all. About seven years ago, the Camrose Booster launched something new: the Camrose Now! app that you can download on your cell phone.

At that time, every year about five per cent of North Americans were giving up their land line phones. The driving force was the rise of cell phone acceptance in every age category and all demographics.

In those days, typically, beside every desk or wall phone was a phone book. Folks at the Camrose Booster concluded that “a mobile phone book” was going to be far more useful in the years ahead. A comprehensive directory with a phone number for all local residents and every business was Step One in the development of the Camrose Now! app.

I’ve been playing with the Camrose Now! app. You can open current and past issues of The Camrose Booster–news, sports, columns and e-flyers. You can click to see “Happening Today,” “Breaking News,” “Coming Events” and “Things to Do.”

But wait, there’s more! A residential phone book for Camrose, Bawlf, Daysland, Ferintosh and New Norway. A list of dozens of local sports organizations. A “Buy and Sell” section where you can list items you’d like to sell or look for items you’d like to buy. City of Camrose news. A place to find postal codes for any address in any Canadian province or territory.

I’ve now invested several hours bopping to various places on the Camrose Now! app. I highly recommend it for anyone in East Central Alberta.

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It’s no secret that print media is struggling, in large part because of giants like Facebook, Google and other electronic media. As far as I know, The Camrose Booster is one of only three community papers (the other two are in the US) that have created their own local community-centric app, adding their unique contribution to the online world.

Fact of life. You can’t change reality, but you can adapt.

The Camrose Booster is an award-winning print community paper in North America. Originator of a community-focussed app.

Can you see why I’m proud of your home town paper?

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