According to the 2018 Budget Proposed, Liberty Lake spends a lot of money to have monthly articles printed in local newspapers. They would be overpaying at a fraction of the cost. (click here for some numbers)
Currently, there is a local newspaper ad offering to pay freelance writers to contribute. It is safe to assume they pay their staff writers to contribute as well. With that in mind, why would the city have to pay to contribute?
Using this logic, the newspapers should be paying the City of Liberty Lake for their contributions.
The goal is not to take revenue from the local paper, but to reduce expenses for Liberty Lake. It hurts when small businesses lose revenue, but this is not revenue that the newspapers should have ever received.
A newspaper or periodical gets readers by having quality content. The more readers they have, the more ads they can sell. This is how they make a money. If a city pays a publication for page space then the paper is getting the better end of the deal. They get the quality content, they get the money, they get more readers, and they can sell more ads.
Sometimes public notices are required to be published in a newspaper of general circulation. The budget should be reserved for this purpose and other similar activities. Otherwise, the city should distribute their monthly articles via social media (free), website (free), email newsletter (free), and printed in newspapers (free).
In short, why is the City of Liberty Lake paying for something that is free or an income source for anyone else?
UPDATE 12-14-17: Here is a link to the proposed partnership agreement with a local paper.
Fine Print: The local government, residents, businesses, and non-profits are welcome to submit quality content to the Liberty Lake Gazette at any time. Websites also thrive on content 🙂
