page 2, December 1, 1976 - North Shore News|

paageren:
Le aes.

This is a free paper. It’s a little more than a

run-of-the-mill free paper. It’s a pioneer free
newspaper—one of the very first controlled
circulation weekly newspapers in North America.
We (and you) are part of a revolution in the print

medium.

For many years most newspapers and
magazines: have-.depended on paid subscribers,
but it has become increasingly apparent that. the
cost of buying readers by this method seldom
equals the revenue gained from subscriptions.
Newspapers and magazines earn their money from
advertising..and obtaining that advertising is the
name of the game. Advertisers are drawn to the
medium that attracts the most readers, for that is
the medium in which their advertising stands the
best chance of being seen.

I started this newspaper in
1969, in competition with two
established paid-circulation
weekly papers. Both had
been established for years,
and I don’t think that cither
they or [ had much idea of
the way that things would go.

SCHIZOPHRENIC
‘One of the competitors, the

Citizen, had a paid circula-.

tion of about 27,000 and their
advertising trumpeted that
they were ‘Canada’s largest
paid-circulation weekly
newspaper.” :

Now their paid circulation
is under 14,000 and they are
scrambling to get into the
free distribution field. it’s
intéresting to see them
change boats in midstream...
for years they promoted
‘paid circulation’ and des-
cribed us (editorially, and to
advertisers) as a ‘throwa-
way,’ a ‘freebie,’ and a ‘rag.*
At one time, in what I am
sure must have been a weak
moment, their editor des-
cribed the North Shore News
as ‘a few careless words
thrown between some hus-
tled ads to make a nomadic
living.” Now they claim
35,000 circulation, of which
over 21,000 is free (dirty
word)...which must make
them feel schizophrenic, to
say the. least.

tions Yvonne Cha

VERIFIED CIRCULATION 46,000
1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4

OFFICE/NEWS: (604) 980-0511
CLASSIFIED: 980-3464 CIRCULATION: 986-1337

ing Kristi Vidler/Claseified Berni Hilliard/Ctireulla-
pman/Adasialstration
Haywood/Acceunts Sylvia Sorensen.

Noath Shere News, founded in 1969 as an
independent community newspaper

registered under Part 111, Schedule 111,
Paragraphs 111 of the Customs and Excise Act,
is published cach Wednesday
Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every
door on the North Shore

Second Class Mall Registration Number 3885.

ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 1976 NORTH
SHORE FREE PRESS LTD. All rights reserved.

The ‘Times,’ the other
North Shore paper, is in

to list them in _ trade
publications.

FOOTBALL FIELD
OF PRINT

So you, you lucrative North
Shore consumer, are being
wooed by many advertisers.
You probably are receiving
the equivalent of a football
field of newsprint and
magazine pages each week—
more than you can possibly
read—and I'll bet that when
you take your bundled
newspapers to the garbage
the strings cut your fingers a
lot deeper than they did a
few years ago.

Free publications present-
ly being delivered to the
majority of North Shore
households include the North
Shore News (of course), the
Citizen, the Times, Van-
couver Magazine, Vancouver
Calendar Magazine, West-
ern Living Magazine, Quest
and the Homemakers Digest.
Some areas receive the
Vancouver Province for
nothing, on an intermittent
basis. Householders also

receive a staggering pile of
direct mail pieces, flyers,

Barbara

and

by the North

°

AAUNAAUANGAUOESONNGASINASSSASNSGSNNLSSNAUNOOSUOONG0S4A0000N00865000005800088N008GS0080N0000089NS008NN0N0NN0GNSSSAQNSGNNSANNLISOE

by Peter Speck

coupons and other print
promotional material.

es ¢€
TWISTING ARMS

That first day that I went
out of my house in Forest
Hills to start the North Shore
News seems like yesterday.
it was February 1969, and I
was broke. We were renting,
and the fifty cents that I took
with me was a lot of money to
us. I bought an invoice book
in Edgemont Village and
Started to sell advertising in
a publication that didu’t
exist—yet.

When I had sold enough
space 1 began _ twisting
bankers’ arms, until one
agreed to lend me enough
money (with the invoice book
as collateral) to print and
deliver the first issue.

I rushed out of the bank
and rented an electric type-
writer, borght a glue pot and
some rub-on lIetters and
stayed awake for twenty-four
hours getting out the first
issue of the North Shore
Shopper (as it was called
then). After it was delivered J
went to the advertisers,
collected the money, v1
back the bank and went on to
sell the next. And the next,

and the one after that, and so |

‘L 7

We went bi-monthly, and ©

then weekly, and the circu-
lation grew from 6,000 to
. 46,000; and the paper ex-
panded from a small suite in
my home to its present 3,000

square feet of offices and 46 -

fuli and part-time employ-
ees.

LONG ROAD

The road between then
and now is seven years long,
and there’s been many times
that L and other staffers have
put in 48 hours without
sleep: We used to print in
Abbotsford, and- my last
function after working the 48
hours -through putting . the
paper together was to drive
out to the printers, an hour
and a bit of freeway driving. I
used to drive out there so
tired that I sometimes
propped my eyes open with
my fingers; and wheri I got
back to North Vancouver 1
slept for about six to cight
hours and then got up to
unload the freight truck that
brought the press run back
from Abbotsford.

Them were long, hard
days, Jake. Finally, one
frosty morning I feel asleep
at the wheel—just for a
second or two—and my car
ran off the pavement and

along the grave! shoulder. . .

The noise of the gravel
spraying on the undercar-
rage woke me and the whole
incident frightened me so
much that J realized the
absurdity of pushing my luck
and from then on I hired
someone to come in at seven
on print day and be drove out
to the Valley.

.

So that’s how the North
Shore News got started; and
that’s why you are petting all
those other free newspapers
as well. In case you were
wondering.

peveeerr bearer

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combined zit

Vn

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