This week, we are publishing the premiere issue of Vero News, the new weekly newspaper that, published together with the two-year-old Sebastian River News, is being delivered to 25,000 homes each week throughout mainland Indian River County.
These newspapers – like their 7-year-old sister publication, Vero Beach 32963 – are produced by what is now the largest news-gathering staff in Indian River County.
The two dozen men and women who put out our papers each week have worked as professional journalists at some of the top newspapers in the country, including The Washington Post, the St. Petersburg Times, the Miami Herald, Newsday, the Orange County Register, the Associated Press and the former United Press International.
No other publication in Indian River County can make that claim.
When you read stories in Vero News, Sebastian River News, and Vero Beach 32963, you can be confident that the reporting has been carefully done by an experienced professional, and that the story has been reviewed by even more experienced editors.
We have only one goal: to help make Vero, Sebastian and Indian River County an ever-better place to live by reporting the news that others miss or choose to ignore, and holding local governments and institutions accountable to the people they serve.
Like Vero Beach 32963, which is mailed to 11,000 homes each week on the barrier island, Vero News and the Sebastian River News are being distributed to 25,000 mainland homes at no charge. Several thousand additional copies are available at distribution points throughout the county.
Some have asked why we have not previously distributed a newspaper throughout the Indian River County mainland.
The answer lies in the fast changing economics of the news business.
Once upon a time, news-gathering organizations were largely supported by subscription revenue from readers.
But the arrival of the internet – where so much information is available free – has rapidly eroded that business model.
The diminishing number of people willing to pay for a daily newspaper subscription – a number which continues to shrink here, as it does elsewhere – makes it clear that the frequency of publication is going to have to change, and advertising increasingly is going to have to bear the load.
While Vero Beach 32963 has had strong advertising support from businesses interested in reaching every home on the affluent barrier island, until recently we could not identify enough advertisers interested in the mainland market to support an additional paper that will cost us more than $1 million a year.
In the past six months, that seems to have changed. The 97(!) advertisers in the premiere issue of Vero News are telling us they want a weekly newspaper that brings the type of serious news coverage found in Vero Beach 32963 to the rest of the county.
We strongly urge readers to patronize these advertisers – and others we hope will soon join us – and to encourage their continued support of Vero News and Sebastian River News.
It is also no coincidence that our newest newspaper shares the name of our online breaking news website, VeroNews.com.
For five years, the readership of the VeroNews.com website – where all the news is free, and where there never will be a paywall – has been growing by the week. Today, it is far and away the most widely read local website in Indian River County.
In between issues of Vero News, Sebastian River News, and Vero Beach 32963, the VeroNews.com website will continue to be the place where you find the latest breaking news from Indian River County – and only from Indian River County.
A week ago, VeroNews.com was hours ahead of the Scripps website with news of the tragic murder that took place at a McDonald’s restaurant – a murder that occurred only a block away from the old Scripps building!
While we have no doubt more and more amateur blogging sites making outrageous claims of viewership will spring up in the future, we hope you will continue to rely on VeroNews.com, where a dedicated fulltime staff of three professional journalists based right here in Vero provides up-to-the-minute coverage of Indian River County seven days a week.
Finally, this note. Vero News, Sebastian River News, and Vero Beach 32963 are your papers. Just as Vero Beach 32963 – which started as a 40- page paper – has grown to some weeks contain 86, 96 and even 104 pages of news and information, our hope is that our mainland papers debuting at 60 pages will continue to expand in coverage and content as well.
As we look to the future, we invite you to tell us what additional coverage or features you would like to see in all our papers.
Please send your comments to [email protected].
