Starting June 1, the Beacon Star is free.
The Beacon Star
PARRY SOUND – What could top a Friday morning with a cup of coffee and a local newspaper? How about a cup of coffee and a free local newspaper?
Beginning June 1, the Parry Sound Beacon Star will offer just that.
The first edition in June will become a free paper, merged with Lifestyles this Week and delivered to homes throughout the West Parry Sound area, complete with weekend flyers, all free to our readers.
The Beacon Star will include the same breaking news content, as well as feature news stories, event listings, classifieds and familiar columns. It will also include some of our readers’ favourites from Lifestyles this Week, with a few new features to improve your read.
Why?
Well, the Beacon Star recognizes the importance of readership, and hopes to provide its great weekend content to a wider array of residents. The move also eliminates duplication, as many subscribers received Lifestyles this Week for free, and again in their Beacon Star – an environmental waste.
“We’re excited because this change will introduce our news team, and the great content they provide, to a host of new readers throughout this area,” said managing editor Jack Tynan. “Readers who have long enjoyed our free Lifestyles content, and great deals in the free flyers distributed in that publication, can now also get a glimpse of hard news from the Parry Sound area produced by our award-winning newsroom.”
For advertisers, the change means all businesses who purchase spots in the Beacon Star will now reach almost 8,000 addresses, great exposure to a wider, captive audience. The Beacon Star will also continue to be distributed through participating retail outlets and drop points throughout the community where Lifestyles has traditionally been found, so it is accessible to visitors in the area.
“Our clients have shown for some time that when it comes to weekends, they prefer to reach a wider swath of Parry Sound customers through total market coverage.” said advertising sales manager Janice Heidman. “Combined with the Wednesday North Star’s paid subscribers, we’ve now strengthened the reach and access to our advertisers’ potential customers so they can share their messages and branding more effectively.”
The North Star will remain Metroland Media Group Ltd.’s flagship Parry Sound newspaper with more in-depth investigative stories, features, special sections, classifieds and community columnists from throughout the district.
The North Star will also remain at the same annual subscription rate of $49.92 ($45.24 for seniors). For those who have already renewed their subscriptions to a North Star/Beacon Star combo, Metroland Media Group Ltd. will offer a credit of equal dollar value to what remains of the Beacon Star portion of readers’ subscriptions to their next North Star renewal.
Of course, the North Star/Beacon Star office will also continue to offer a wide selection of special publications, including Sideroads of Parry Sound, Fun in the Sun, the Goldbook large print phone book, maps, guides and more, as well as our award-winning cottagecountrynow.com site and other online favourites such as ShopTalkinParrySound.com, WagJag and Flyerland.ca.
“It’s important to us that we continue to evolve to meet the needs of readers and business owners in our community,” said interim regional general manager Chris McWebb. “For that reason, feedback is always important to us and we hope you will continue to provide that feedback in Parry Sound, as you have always done. We will listen, and continue to strive to do whatever we can to serve the community.”