Last time I ended us having started The East Side Voice. Luckily people realized quickly that we were the same staff as the old Herald and were very kind to us, but we did need to introduce ourselves to those that weren’t familiar with our new publication. Ethel had a tent so we decided to set up a booth in the Farmers Market in Ellenberger once a month. It’s a lot of work to set up a tent, tables and big signs. Those people who do this regularly I salute you – it’s exhausting and if it’s raining or really hot, then it can be downright miserable. We had T-shirts printed and hats with our logo and even giveaways like pens and back scratchers—we still have some. We had a set of coffee mugs done and still use them every day.
We did enjoy meeting the community, many of which we knew. That first Halloween we set up a tent during the Irvington Halloween Festival. It was a cool, very windy day and we were right at the corner of Johnson Ave. in front of the Irving Theater. The tent next to us lifted up off the ground and blew over. I went home (living very close) and brought back concrete building blocks to hold our tent down – what fun! Next time you go to the Halloween Festival thank those vendors for setting up and buy something from them – they deserve it!
Starting our 5th year of publication we made a big decision to change our name of the publication to The Weekly View. We had grown and expanded our circulation and wanted to reflect that in our name. We are all eastsiders and very proud to be and wanted to spread the good news we cover with a wider audience. The company name is still East Side Voice, just the publication name changed. Some call us a mixture of all our names – Eastside View, Weekly Voice, etc. and we answer to all with “can I help you.”
About this same time a litter of feral kittens showed up hungry at our door and we started feeding them. The group at one point was probably eight, but over the years we feed four or five regularly now. With the help of FACE, we had them all neutered and registered as a feral community. Judy is their caretaker and master, but Ethel and I pitch in on the weekends. Judy’s added dog houses and lots of straw for warmth. I call it “Fort Feral.” Originally there were two orange and white litter mates (twins) who are inseparable and still with us (Marmalade and Marm), a black and white one, a couple calico, a gray and white and a black one (Inky). Judy has spoiled them and we let her. For many years we had a farm cat Lola who lived inside our office and ruled the place. She was beautiful with gold eyes. She passed away a couple years ago — we still miss her.
In 2015, our partner Jeanne moved and started another career – it wasn’t easy but we continued without her.
Over the years we have come up with a variety of special sections and tabloids to give our advertisers more options. One that started shortly after we opened and continues today is our Fun & Games tabloid. I remember for the Smoke Shop in Irvingon Plaza (back page of Fun & Games) I had a piece of art I found with a side view of a pretty lady blowing smoke rings. I started playing around in Photoshop and realized I could make those smoke rings into whatever shape I wanted, so it was fun every month figuring out what shape to make them to go along with that month —hearts for Valentine’s Day and shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, etc. The client loved it and they advertised right up until they retired. Our “It’s My Business” and “Education Guide” are still going strong, while others like the “Going Green” and “How Do I” have not had enough advertisers to continue. When you are advertiser-supported it is hard to pay for a tabloid — it’s more expensive. It’s amazing how many people don’t realize that we pay the same price printing newsprint as the New York Times (just fewer pages and less circulation). Newsprint is newsprint and ink is ink and of course, both have gone up over the years. Because so many of our advertisers have been with us for years, it’s very difficult to raise prices, so it’s a losing battle sometimes to stay in the black financially. I know we sometimes get a call from a naive client who wants to run their church flyer (8”x10”) on the front cover for little money. Some people actually think we run the newspaper off on a press in the back room! They have no idea how expensive newspaper presses are and how involved the whole process is. Now this doesn’t mean we can’t and are not happy to take the information from their flyer and make a nice little ad to put on page 3 next to Applause and charge them non-profit rate ($10 a column inch). Some of the other special tabloids that we’ve tried are a monthly “Almanac,” “Going Green,” “Health and Insurance,” “Body, Mind & Spirit,” “Anniversary Edition,” “Great Outdoors,” “Wedding Planner,” “Senior Tab,” and “Veteran’s Day.” We are always trying to come up with ideas that will work.
We have had good success with our Business Card Directory for over 10 years. It’s a small bound booklet of Business cards, categorized and distributed weekly in our distribution drops and green boxes and replenished all year long. Another ongoing special tabloid is “The Halloween Festival” tab which has only increased the awareness of this huge festival and promoted Irvington. Also for many years we did the Benton House Home Tour tab which was a fun, but labor intensive, tabloid. I visited all the houses and took photos and talked to the homeowners and Ethel put together their stories in a multi-page tab.
For several years we had a pet contest which was very popular with our readers, but keeping advertisers to sponsor the page was the issue.
Ethel and I have covered many a ribbon cutting and special event. We are such a small staff, so when someone calls and asks can we come cover your “whatever” – it’s not because we don’t want to, we can’t – deadlines and answering the phone. I’ll never forget while Ethel was covering a house fire on south Emerson, her own house was on fire at that moment and she lost her dog. Her home was restored.
Us ladies of the View have all become good friends with over 17 years together (counting the 3 years at the Herald). Ethel and I went to England in 2011 and had an incredible time. She had been 3 times before, so she took the lead. We stayed within walking distance of the British Museum and could take the Tube anywhere in London. We did it all — Tower of London, Globe Theatre, Tate Museum just to name a few. We rented a tiny car and Ethel drove us down to Cornwall and we stayed in a 150 year old B&B with a beamed ceiling dining room and a Springer Spaniel laying in front of the fireplace. I urged Ethel to write a series of articles about our trip day by day. (archived in 2011)
I myself have had a few special sections over the years including this “My Jobs” which I first did in 2011. Also a series of “Traveling with Paula” which has been an account of every vacation I’ve taken while having the newspaper. I also did a series about my alma mater Tech High School and did a Centennial Tabloid when Tech celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2012.
When a feral pot-belly pig showed up at my feral cats feeding bowl at home and was un-catchable I did a 10 week series about “Wilbur.”
Up until the pandemic, we annually had a Christmas Party for our writers and delivery people. We used the Historic Benton House which is always decorated at Christmas, found a caterer and gave away door prizes (from our advertiser’s generous gift certificates). Several times we had entertainment for example a magic show, guitar soloist and even a Tech musical group caroling. We always had harpist Melissa Gallant play during the whole evening – what a treat.
We hope to keep bringing you the “good news” to the community as long as we can and appreciate all the support from our advertisers and readers. Thanks so much!
