The New Year brings a sense of re-birth, excitement and hope to Harrisburg and our region.
With a new mayor and a “Strong” plan for a new fiscal reality, there is a palpable sense of optimism in the air around town. As Dave Butcher points out in his excellent article in this issue, national demographic trends that favor the re-birth and renaissance of cities nationwide are also beginning to have a small, but perceptible, impact here at home. These trends, coupled with focused, effective leadership, a re-invigorated citizenry and a business community that believes in the promise of better days ahead, bode well for 2014.
This month, TheBurg turns 5, and we have much to celebrate. Larry Binda has led a transformation of our publication over the past year. Together with our lead writer Paul Barker, our designer Megan Davis, our sales manager Lauren Mills, our web designers and managers at WebpageFX (who will move their company and their 50-plus employees into the city in early 2104) and all of our many contributors, TheBurg has gone from good to great in under a year.
Equally important, leading individuals and businesses in the region have noticed our work. These community-minded leaders appreciate the importance of the public service TheBurg provides through engaged reporting. More than noticing, they have agreed to join with me as “Community Publishers.” Their names include: Select Capital Commercial Properties, Integrity Bank, Greenlee Partners, Capital Blue Cross, Sutliff Chevrolet (who also continues to support 3rd in TheBurg), WCI Partners (where I am also a partner), Consolidated Scrap Resources, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and RE/MAX Realty Associates Ray Davis and Wendell Hoover.
Inside this month’s front cover and inside the cover of every month and on our website, you will find these leading brands and individuals. Each month, they— along with our advertisers—will bring TheBurg to you, free of charge. Through their annual commitment to TheBurg, they will allow us to write the stories, publish the pictures and distribute the paper you have come to know and expect.
In effect, these Community Publishers are joining with me to create an entirely new business model for a local monthly print publication. Implicit in their support is the realization that advertising alone is not enough to sustain a publication. At the same time, they understand that the entire community benefits from engaged news reporting—and that someone has to pay for it. The problem, in the age of the Internet, is that other media and venues are taking advertising dollars once directed to print. It is equally hard to efficiently mail or distribute paid subscriptions. The “free-rider” problem is endemic. Many, if not all, would like to see a quality product— particularly one that mentions their name and good work from time to time—but many more would prefer if someone else pays for it. Fortunately, these leaders have the vision to see and support this reality.
I call this new model the “all-profit” model, as in “we all profit” from having TheBurg around. Even though I have pledged to my fellow publishers to take zero profits (as in “none”) out of TheBurg personally, I know that I profit along with the community. Even though no one makes monetary profits, our lives are greatly enriched as we open and read the stories of our neighbors each month and follow along on the web and through blogs and social media.
In the end, our community life—and quite a bit of our personal lifestyle and standard of living—is greatly influenced by the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, in the public sphere. If those stories are undeservedly negative, as they have been in Harrisburg for some time, the community suffers. If we tell the real story—about the 95 percent that goes right every day instead of the 5 percent that goes wrong—we all benefit.
Let’s be perfectly clear: this is not about charity. This is enlightened self-interest that recognizes that doing well and living well are not measured by bottom-line profits alone. Conversely, it is the recognition that, while there are other measures of success, conducting a business that can pay all its bills is a necessary condition to ensure long-term sustainability.
Our community publishers “get it.” And, since they do, you too will continue to “get” TheBurg. We have room and, in fact, a need for more of them. You will know that we have reached our goal of financial sustainability only when each logo box is occupied by an actual logo. If you know anyone who shares our vision and loves TheBurg, please tell them about us and encourage them to join us. Most importantly, please join with me, as we say “thank you” to all of our community publishers for their wonderful support.
J. Alex Hartzler is publisher of TheBurg.
