Since its debut at the end of August, The Citizen has been growing fast. The initial business plan was to create a 16- to 20-page monthly paper focused primarily on Niverville and print 2,500 copies. This was just enough to put a copy in each of Niverville’s 1,890 mailboxes and stock local businesses.
As readers may have noticed, the first 5 issues have been a lot bigger than that—and distribution is up, too.
“We hand-delivered papers to all businesses in surrounding communities to gauge the uptake,” says Ray Dowse, one-quarter of the paper’s ownership group. The other owners are Evan Braun, Dustin Krahn, and Cara Dowse. “As each month passed, demand grew. The number of papers being taken in by many of those communities around Niverville increased with each issue we delivered.”
The response has been very positive, so Dowse has been restocking businesses often. By December 2016, the distribution had inched up to 3,000.
Starting with this issue, The Citizen is expanding its reach to better meet demand. The ownership group has elected to begin mail drops in Île-des-Chênes, New Bothwell, Otterburne, Ste. Agathe, and Tourond. The difference so far is that, unlike in Niverville, it is only possible to distribute the paper in those towns to mailboxes that allow flyers. Dowse will continue to hand-deliver the paper to businesses in all of those communities, as well as St. Adolphe and Landmark.
Overall, this increases The Citizen’s distribution to 4,200 copies per month. There has also been an accompanying increase in email subscriptions, which readers can sign up for on the paper’s website.
The Citizen strives to be a true voice for the community by fostering a diverse team of freelance writers, and as such is continuing to hunt for writing talent in Niverville and the many towns receiving the paper in their mailboxes for the first time. As interest in the paper grows, The Citizen intends to incorporate more stories from surrounding communities.
