This week’s Brookings Register will look a little different. From a new flag on the front to new sections throughout, it’s our attempt to better reflect the diversity of Brookings and the surrounding county.
Today’s paper is also being distributed to nearly every resident in the city of Brookings. We want to reintroduce ourselves. To showcase that we are not only still here, more than 140 years after our origin, but thriving.
You will find, inside these pages, an offer for subscribers to buy and substantially save. A 12-month subscription will get you two additional months for free. A six-month investment gets you an additional 30 days to peruse these pages. We hope you take advantage and join us as we strive to bring you a paper you not only demand but deserve.
It’s been a stumbling start from when this paper abruptly closed last August to today. There have been circulation issues, billing issues, distribution issues, personnel issues and, obviously, printing issues.
Today we print at Forum in Sioux Falls, a quality press facility with nearly limitless capacity. The pictures and colors are crisp, the text is legible and it’s my hope that we can utilize this improved press product to reach our potential.
We are moving to a new circulation system in the coming days and weeks. This system will not only allow us to track expired subscribers and reach out to potential readers but provide valuable data that can help us dictate what type of news you want to read.
We are recruiting additional journalists to our team. Gavin Struve, an Omaha native and former sports editor in Fairbanks, Alaska, arrives mid-June. Other journalists will soon follow and we are currently actively seeking sales personnel.
And we have also moved. By the time you get this edition, The Brookings Register sign at our long-time location will have been removed and restored at our new location in the Eastside Commons at 756 22nd Ave.
We have moved into a suite directly behind Danger von Dempseys Pizza, just down from the Brookings Liquor Store. The reality is that The Register no longer owned the building in which it operated for decades and no longer needs thousands of square feet within.
Today we are inhabiting a modern space with ready parking and handicap access and, while it will be an adjustment, we hope you all take time to stop by, subscribe to the paper, place a marketing message or just reacquaint yourself with staff, many of whom have been with this paper for multiple decades.
Change is difficult and this paper has been in constant change since nearly a year ago. It’s my hope you recognize the importance of a true newspaper, the legal organ of this city and this county, and can help us become the paper you want us to be.
This week’s Brookings Register has a new look, new sections and a publisher with new ideas. But the one constant is that we want to be your newspaper. Please join us as we grow.
— Brookings Register publisher Brian Bloom is a third-generation newspaperman.
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