Letter From the Editor
We’re All Links in the Chain
For the past two weeks, we’ve asked you to read and reflect, sharing ideas on how newspapers can keep making the news by feats of daily and weekly delivery.
In the end, delivery — in our case, distribution — is the last link in the chain that brings your eyes to this page.
No matter how smart and entertaining our stories. No matter how hardworking our staff. No matter how dedicated our advertisers (and serviceable our ad staff). No matter how clever our cover or readable our papers. It all goes nowhere unless it gets into your hands.
Controlled circulation is the way Bay Weekly, and many alternative newspapers, reach our readers. In other words, we’re not thrown willy-nilly in your yard or in your mailbox; we depend on you to pick us. To get Bay Weekly, you’ve got to want to read the paper. And you’ve got to find it.
So before the first New Bay Times hit the streets, way back in the late winter of 1993, we began building alliances with the owners and managers of places you stop and shop. We relied on goodwill, as generous partners lent us space on their counter or floor for stacks or racks of this paper.
Among our distribution partners, Whole Foods Market (from its early days as Fresh Fields) has always been a stalwart, putting Bay Weekly into the hands of hundreds of readers like you.
Until earlier this year, when reorganization at the store forced us out.
Now we’re back in Whole Foods, in a new wood-finish rack before the door as you leave checkout. For that we thank, our friends at Whole Foods, including marketing director Amy Chase and Annapolis team leader Muriel Ortiz.
With the help of more than 500 distribution partners like Whole Foods, that’s how you, our readers, find and pick up your Bay Weekly.
Of course, those racks and shelves don’t refill themselves by magic. We rely on a fleet of drivers: Jim Walter, Wally Everett, Jim Lyles, Allison Quattro Chris Benton and Katie and Peter Vonderheide. Yes, they brave rain, snow and sleet — and celebrate good weather — to bring Bay Weekly to your reach.
If Bay Weekly is missing from your favorite shop, stop or restaurant, give us a call. Better yet, ask the owner or manager to bring us in. Let them know that carrying Bay Weekly is a customer service, giving the people who patronize their business something for free — a rarity in today’s world.
