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Previous coverage
* The ethical choice
* The numbers quantify the need
* Readers flock to PeeDeePost.com
* Let’s talk about community involvement
* 62,462 photos and counting
Google “reasons to buy local.” Feel free to substitute “shop” for “buy.” Same difference.
The are approximately 520 million results that appear (the search took 0.34 seconds). While many lists offer much the same analysis, we chose to go with this one.
1. Local businesses tend to spend money locally. A great example: Even though I’m new to North Carolina and Richmond County, I’ve already found a Rockingham IT guy for technical assistance. My children take art lessons here, music lessons here … and just about anything the business needs, we generally buy local if a vendor has it.
2. What we produce is produced right here in Richmond County. We’ll even consider local 30 miles in any direction of downtown Rockingham for this point — in the future, we’re eyeing satellite offices in a couple of towns — but we’ll never farm out production to somewhere two counties away (or hundreds of miles away) while answering to corporate a couple hours away. Corporate is right here in Rockingham, and we’re not going anywhere.
3. Greater stability. Do another Google search. This time, try “newspapers close down” or words to that effect. Throughout the country, traditional print newspapers are circling the wagons, contracting — cutting back days in print circulation while increasing ad rates, obituary rates and subscription rates — and holding their collective breath. All the while, readers are getting less from those companies and paying more for it. From The Pee Dee Post, you have the return of a seven-day-a-week news source at your fingertips.
4. More accountable. Absolutely. This relates to both state and local laws and regulations as well as internal policies meeting the needs of our customers. When the Post first opened, the plan was to charge $2 for each listing in the Events Calendar. We heard you loud and clear on that — “NO!” — and changed the ill-conceived idea before it went very far.
5. Less vulnerability. We will rise and fall with the success of the market in and around Richmond County. We firmly believe on readers’ appreciation for local news and information. Even if there is a major change in the dynamics, from Baltimore to Raleigh, we’re still here for you.
6. Smart growth. We fit right in. Within a short walk of only a few blocks in downtown Rockingham, you can visit the local and county law enforcement agencies, city and county administrative buildings, a library, grab breakfast, lunch or dinner, visit a children’s museum, a community theater and your only local daily digital newspaper. Smart growth equals local market. We’ll leave it to Fox or CNN to report from Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing or Sydney. We give you what’s going on in your front and back yard (sometimes even before you’ve peeked out your window to see for yourself).
7. Greater identity. Along with AberdeenTimes.com in neighboring Moore County, Richmond County is fortunate to have a daily online news source that focuses on local people and events. One hundred percent of our efforts focus on you, your neighbor or the guy or gal across the street or down the road. We’re here for you and only you. There’s something to be said about that. From the online report, “Part of what makes any community great is how well it preserves its unique culture, foods, ecology, architecture, history, music, and art. Local businesses celebrate these features …” Yes, that’s exactly what makes PeeDeePost.com a success. Meanwhile, in the report, “Outsider-owned firms take what they can from local assets and move on.” Need we say more?
8. In case your answer to 7 was “yes,” here’s more. More entrepreneurship. From the report: “Chris Gibbons, founder of the economic gardening movement, argues that local businesses focusing on innovation is one of the most dynamic catalysts for local prosperity. Businesses involved in community production, many of which are globally owned factories, are among the worst.” So we’re locally owned and operated and are far more likely to be the catalyst for great things to come — and we’re just getting started.
9. Greater creativity. From the report: “Richard Florida’s arguments about the importance of a “creative class” for economic success also tend to support locally owned businesses. Florida argues that among the key inducements for a creative class to move to and stay in a community are its civic culture, its intellectual bent, its diversity and its sense of self — all attributes that are clearly enhanced in a local-business economy. A local-business economy seeks to celebrate its own culture, not to import mass culture through boring chain restaurants and Cineplexes.” In the newspaper world, you can liken that to a focus on local people and events instead of borrowing content from regional or, just as often, far-away news outlets that have little, if any, impact on your life.
10. Greater political participation. Conversation underneath the stories on PeeDeePost.com and on the accompanying Facebook page has been tremendous — generally three times or more than any other news outlet in or adjacent to Richmond County. In less than six months’ time, the Post has become the No. 1 place to go to read updated local news, events and classifieds — the latter which have all but disappeared in traditional print newspapers. “Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam has identified the long-term relationships in stable communities as facilitating the kinds of civic institutions—schools, churches, charities, fraternal leagues, business clubs—that are essential for economic success.” One group of scholars recently concluded after reviewing the social science literature: “[T]he degree to which the economic underpinnings of local communities can be stabilized — or not — will be inextricably linked with the quality of American democracy in the coming century.”
And for a bonus, we’re the green, environmentally friendly choice. There’s no tonnage of extra newsprint lying around on your front lawn, in your bushes or leftover in Rockingham, Lumberton or any other printing facility. The Pee Dee Post is at your fingertips 24/7. We’re here for you.