By Neena Strichart
Six months from Monday we will be celebrating ten years of publishing the Signal Tribune as you now know it. Steve and I are proud of our weekly product and give all the credit for our longevity and success to our brilliant staff, loyal advertisers and supportive readers.
Under our leadership, and sometimes in spite of it, our little paper has grown to be a community favorite. We have done our best to report on local happenings— sometimes good news and sometimes bad— but always of interest to residents in our distribution area— or so you have said.
Although we do NOT endorse political candidates— on that policy I stand firm— we do offer information regarding city (Long Beach and Signal Hill), county and state elections. We announce the candidacy of those running for office and publish interviews with local candidates. Besides declining to endorse candidates, we’ve also shied away from taking a stand on various propositions or measures. I’ve taken a lot of heat for insisting on staying neutral in print— although I’d probably share my opinions verbally— but off the record.
The whole issue of whether or not to accept advertising from medicinal marijuana establishments is just the latest of dilemmas we face. The only difference is this particular quandary involves big money— money we sure could use during these dreadful economic times. In my column last week I asked you, our faithful readers, if you thought we should allow medicinal marijuana establishments to place paid ads in our paper. You favored us with a great number of responses. Some agreed to have their opinions printed (see some of those letters on this page) while others preferred their correspondence with me remain confidential.
Surprising to me was the overwhelming majority of those who said I should accept any means of ad revenue necessary to make ends meet. Wow— what a shock! And I thought we had a rather conservative readership! Nevertheless, after a bit of pondering we’ve decided that no matter what other local daily and weekly publications are doing we are going to hold off running ads for individual marijuana dispensaries— and will not run them until our cities (Long Beach and Signal Hill) have set policy and regulations for the establishments. However, I will agree to run advertisements that seek to inform and educate the community on the subject. Or at least that’s how I feel right now.
With that said!many of you have requests for a deeper and taller distribution (more bulk drops with more copies) and a wider distribution that would include Signal Hill condos and the part of Wrigley we do not currently cover. Although we distribute 25,000 copies weekly (mostly door-to-door with a couple thousand bulk dropped), it appears our readers or wanna- be readers want more. You have also asked for a more detailed and interactive website. All of these features cost dollars— advertising dollars that are hard to come by— especially now with our local retailers facing such tough times. So, I want to request an early 10-year birthday gift from our readers. I figure a buck a piece from all our readers who don’t currently have a voluntary subscription (see form below) would allow us to come up with a spiffy new website and a good start toward a deeper, wider and taller distribution as well as the addition of pages for more articles, commentaries and news stories to keep you informed, educated and entertained.
Although we would like to apply for grants with local agencies such as Leadership Long Beach, Long Beach Community Foundation and Connected Corridor, we are not eligible because our office is in Signal Hill— it doesn’t matter that the bulk of our distribution is actually Long Beach. Anyway!.
We promise to keep any of your donated birthday money in a separate account and to keep you posted on how we spend “your gifts” to us.
Thank you in advance for your generosity.
