A few years back, when we were looking for ways to supplement our advertising income, we signed up to have Google ads automatically placed in spots on our website that were not being engaged by local advertisers. They basically filled in the blanks, with whatever Google saw fit to post. It seemed like a painless way to earn some extra cash.
The revenues have been fairly consistent but never great. The ad placements earned us a tiny return for the space that was being filled on a website that is our online face to the world.
At first, the ads were just a distraction. Over time, they became increasingly brash, annoying and inappropriate. Lately, they have become intrusive and disruptive. Ads are popping up in the middle of our online stories, some with a “continue” button that implies that is how you keep reading the story, but instead takes you to an advertisement.
We don’t like the clutter, and we don’t like that it makes it more difficult to navigate the website. We’ve also heard from readers who thought some of the ads were offensive.
Recently we put restrictions on dozens of ad categories that we didn’t want to see any more. Now, we’re taking the next step: as soon as possible, we’re ridding the website of all Google-placed ads. Of course, these days it’s harder to stop something than to start it, so we’ll see how it goes.
We’ll lose a little money, but it’s worth it to create a better reading environment. And we’re going to ramp up our efforts to get local advertisers on our website pages to increase their exposure at reasonable rates. Our metrics are solid, fed by links from our Facebook page postings. If you are interested in taking over some of the Google spots, contact our advertising manager, Tera Evans, at advertising@methowvalleynews.com.
Where we are
Speaking of revenues — many of you periodically ask how we are doing. I know it’s a broad, well-meaning question, and I appreciate that you ask. Without going into line-by-line detail of our profit-and-loss reports, I can offer an overview of our performance — which has bright spots, and less bright ones.
Our gross revenue was nearly identical in years 2022 and 2023 — last year brought in $1,000 more than the previous year, basically flat. Not dazzling, but not a retreat. We again showed a net profit in 2023, a bit less so than in 2022. We operated at a 5% margin, slim but above water.
On the revenue side, we did well in the sale of display ads in the newspaper and in our magazines, with increases in both categories. Subscription revenues were up, but classified ad sales dropped dramatically. We’ve been helped by our partnership with the Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune to carry the county’s legal advertising. That annual contract is up for bid again soon. We never know how that’s going to turn out, but always make our best effort.
On the expense side, our postage and delivery costs were pretty stable, but we know that those costs will go up. Printing expenses were up dramatically — more pages, better quality magazine covers, and cost increases contributed to that. It’s not an easy category to trim costs from.
Contract labor costs — for freelancers, mainly — were stable. Our total payroll expenses were up, which I consider a good thing because it means we had people on the payroll.
Overall, expenses were up less than 3% in 2023 compared to 2022 — not bad compared to the national inflation rate. And, we have come a long way from the hole we were in a few years ago after a former employee’s theft of funds. We owed the printer, the IRS and other creditors a lot of money. It’s all been repaid.
So are we solvent and stable? Yes, with caveats — as we have seen in recent years, things can change dramatically, causing challenges that are out of our control. Our traditional (many would say outmoded, or even doomed) print business model is still viable here, as it is in many rural communities where the weekly newspaper is still valued. But there are no guarantees there, either. The stories you’ve read, and forwarded to me, about “news deserts” around the country are cautionary, and remind us not to be complacent.
As always, thanks for your ongoing support. It seems like whenever we need a boost, the community somehow provides it. That, combined with hard work and a little luck, is what sustains us.
