Whirlwind week but you can help!
It’s been a whirlwind of a week but I’ll start with me and end with you. My first week back to the gym after years off, and my first time ever with a personal trainer, was very eventful. Leah Jerez is amazing and I am happy to have her as my trainer, and her boyfriend, Dwayne “King Q,” is great as my nutritionist. I showed my plans from my training team to my doc and he signed off on them, which I am happy happened.
Unfortunately, my doc also confirmed my suspicion that I have not been able to escape my genetic predisposition (not just for obesity but) for that Wilford Brimley disease, The BEETUS (if you don’t look up Wilford Brimley memes). The funny thing is my doctor was so nice that after going through the litany of things I cannot or should not eat now that labs confirmed I have The Beetus, he didn’t want to tell me what to avoid because of my high cholesterol. ‘ You don’t even want to know right now. We’ve had enough damage today.’ Lol, what a nice guy.
This is only a week or two after my EKG showed fine and I noticed I had already started to drop some weight just from slight changes in my diet, before finding the trainers and getting the gym subscription. Add strenuous family issues and simultaneous/multi-publication work deadlines right on top of each other and I think a lesser man would have already cracked (all aboard the rollercoaster I guess, hah!).
Later in the week, as my enemy the treadmill decided to show me on my first day back on it how out of shape I really am just starting out, the added bonus of a fun little foot blister decided to become my friend in a very small amount of time. The elliptical felt like an old friend, but that treadmill hates my guts (all of them).
There were also some bombshells dropped on me at work this week that I can’t really get into the specifics about, but this is where I ask you for help. (Now you see where that lightly veiled attempt at sympathy came from don’t you?)
In stark contrast to how the start of my Get-Right Health Journey Week 1 went, most times when I get feedback about this newspaper since I took the helm in early October – and since other key staff has been added since September, with freelancer additions throughout the past few months – it is overwhelmingly positive.
“The newspaper has life again.” “You’re doing a great job, keep it up!” “It’s like night and day.” “I might bring some of my advertising dollars your way soon.” “I might just start subscribing again,” people have said, and I appreciate every single piece of praise and constructive criticism or (good) suggestions that come my way. Yet, it is one phrase in all of that goodness that is haunting us. ‘I MIGHT subscribe again.’
“Might” is a funny word, like “soon” ... there’s no definitiveness or timetable to it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work in our corporate world of business.
“Across the country, rising costs and shrinking demand for printed publications have changed the very definition of ‘daily’ newspapers,” writes Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative writer in an article titled “The Future of the Daily Newspaper.”
“The once-routine, seven-day-a-week print run is disappearing, with 42 of the largest 100 newspapers now delivering a print edition six or fewer times a week,” Greg Burns writes (no relation to our Sharon Burns).
While it’s no secret that hard copy newspapers as an industry have been drying up faster than the Salton Sea, (unlike the Sea) we here in the Imperial Valley have been fortunate enough to have multiple newspapers to cover your local news here, with IVP being the biggest and, I would say, the most history and longevity to our competitors (though I find competition to be healthy).
Yet, we are corporate owned. I know that Editorial is doing fine because I hear the feedback (good and bad). I know that more Advertisements have been coming our way because I see them run. Now we need your help, Readers, on subscriptions.
Yes, we still have kinks to work out – no newspaper is perfect – but if you’ve been liking most if not all of the positive changes you’ve seen in coverage from this newspaper in the past few months, then help us out so we can continue to help you out with local coverage.
With expenses rising, in order for us to keep the wheels greased, we need to be firing well on all cylinders, including renewed and new subscriptions.
Here’s where you come in: (If you aren’t already,) become a subscriber to your local newspaper, the Imperial Valley Press.
You can help us help you by re-subscribing, telling people you know about the positive changes in IVP coverage so they should subscribe again, and highly encourage your families begin reading and subscribing again as well.
No, we’re not in danger of closing our doors, but if you like some of the stories you’ve seen from our “Special to this Newspaper” crew, help us boost our subscriber numbers to you can keep seeing those and we can keep broadening our local coverage. It’s time to start to change that “might” subscribe to “I JUST DID subscribe” to IV Press!
Competition for IVP may come and go but the Imperial Valley Press will always be our local newspaper of record; it is a staple of not only the El Centro community but the Imperial Valley at large. Help us keep it in tact and keep growing by subscribing, promoting more subscribers, and bringing your continued advertising dollars this way. I assure you, it is MUCH appreciated, as are you, dear Reader. Bests.