By Editorial Board
-Editorial-
Gazette 2.0 has been providing the westside of Pittsburgh with local news for more than three years now. Covering local news has its ups and downs. The support we receive from our towns, businesses and readers is paramount to our success. And we have a lot of support.
Ushering in the New Year, the team would like to take a moment to thank those who have continuously supported, but also question those who do not.
Within our areas, specifically, we receive support in the form of legal advertising. These are those public meeting notices and special meetings that you see in the back of the paper. Each town/borough is required to publish these in some form of valid print. Placing them on their website doesn’t qualify as advertising.
Most of our areas support us in this manner. Crafton, Ingram, Kennedy, Coraopolis, Robinson and Stowe are regulars. McKees Rocks (previously not a regular advertiser) has recently joined the list.
We want to personally thank each of these towns that help to support our existence. Without the backing of the neighborhood, the neighborhood newspaper wouldn’t exist.
A big shout out to our readers and advertisers, too. In an age where local news is hanging on by a thin thread, your support is insurmountable to our operation.
Now, you might have noticed that one of our primary areas only started advertising with us (again) recently, under new leadership — McKees Rocks. We’ve been vocal since March 2020, when the borough started refusing to send us police reports due to an unfavorable story blurb which they didn’t like. At the time, they pulled out all legal advertising support and were instead using the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Legal advertising can be quite costly. We keep our rates as low as possible in order to be beneficial to our towns and the taxpayers there.
Legal advertising in the Post-Gazette costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars per listing and is about five times the price of what we charge. Ultimately, that is money that could go toward bettering a town.
With news of the shifting leadership on the council, we hope they’ll continue to help out a small, locally-owned business and make sure more money is going back into the community.
Thank you again to our continuous supporters. We will keep on giving you your local newspaper.
Be sure to vote for your favorite town by March 31. Send us a note or email news@gazette20.com with the subject, “Best Town to Live In” with your name, what municipality you live in and why you think your town is the best.