A FEW UPDATES, NOTES, ETC.
Here’s your public service announcement from the Disclosure staff to start off your week.
This month’s issue will be on the stands over the next few days. While it is true that an extraordinary number of pages this month is dedicated to the Brandon Jenkins trial, we did strive to ensure that we have a good selection of stories from around the readership area that are important to those outside the immediate area impacted by the Jenkins trial. And please don’t diminish the case…Brandon Jenkins was exonerated of the charges because he proved SELF-DEFENSE. This is important to ALL of us in the state of Illinois, who are prohibited from carrying a weapon on our person when we’re anywhere but upon our home, land, or fixed place of business. This kind of attack can come along at any time. We have the RIGHT as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to PROTECT OURSELVES, yet Illinois’ legislators have seen fit to impinge upon that right. There are several movements working to reverse this dangerous set of laws, including Illinois Carry; we suggest you join and support them in any way possible. Above all, LEARN THE LAW. There are certain little twists in Illinois’ gun laws and the general populace doesn’t know about them; I won’t give links here because there are certain people watching this site whom I don’t want going to those sites and sabotaging. Best bet is for you to research it yourself. You will be pleasantly surprised.
This issue will be on the stands for FIVE WEEKS. Please tell everyone you know, because we didn’t have room to put a little brief inside this issue letting people know this, there’s just the “next issue” tab in green on the back page that tells when the next release is, and it seems we can’t get people to look at that; they seem to have their own ideas about how our circulation is done. We are USUALLY on a four-week cycle; some months have more days than others, and when there is a “five-week month,” we usually try to stay within every four weeks, oftentimes producing TWO papers within ONE month on that schedule (like we did this past December). However, we’re taking five full weeks this month because we have something in the works that’s going to make a LOT more real news readers in the southern third of the state very happy. You’ll know it as soon as we’re in place to announce it. Suffice it to say that, like Ang’s book release last winter, this is a BIG DEAL. You WON’T be disappointed. (Plus, this is a big gardening month for us, and we have to get that under control…the spuds are growing GREAT this year.)
Thank you for accepting the $3 price. We WERE going to reduce the price back to $2 for the April-May issue. However, for once, we were able to make payroll, mail the subs, pay the fuel bill for the cars, and pay the print bill up front without squeezing into savings upon realizing sales at $3 a paper. We had been considering raising the price since 2009 but just couldn’t seem to do it. We did it with the addition of color. We’d like to keep it that way so we can continue our coverage expansion and other projects that are about to be launched. So $3 it is; and we thank you profusely for accepting it and not grumbling too much…the most grumbling we heard was out of Lawrence County, but even that was limited. So don’t just ‘not buy it’ because it’s gone up a dollar…what hasn’t? What are you paying for a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread? We pay the same thing…so we have to ensure our expenses are covered, and this is the most expedient way to do it. We are striving, again, to make sure this is something well worth the cost to you…we’ll try not to let you down.
Our subs have gone up as a result of the price increase. You will notice a little bit of price disparity between cost of subscriptions via check or money order (mail) or via PayPal (online). PayPal takes a percentage out of our cost if you subscribe through online methods. Therefore, we have to recover our costs by charging a little more if you subscribe via PayPal. The hope is that most subscribers will do so by check or money order…but there is a convenience to PayPal-ing, we realize. We just have to recoup our costs. We are making literally NO money off subs with increased postal rates…we cut that margin as close as we dare. We understand it’s a nice option, having that PayPal…but we couldn’t keep losing that money. So there’s the explanation for that, and we apologize for having to do it that way.
A note on this month’s mailing: We put up a Facebook post yesterday addressed to those in TEXAS who would like to read the Jenkins coverage. We received a nice donation from someone who is paying for the mailing of these issues to Brandon Jenkins’ friends, just this one-time mailing. We are NOT sending a general free mailing to anyone…just people in Texas (or from Texas, who may live in other areas; we have some from Louisiana and one in Virginia so far) …one of these days we may be able to do a general free sampling mailing, but this isn’t one of them. This is JUST for the Jenkins people who otherwise have no access to Disclosure‘s print version…they have been very supportive and haven’t read much about it in their home state. We apologize if the Facebook message may have been confusing to some; we were really tired when we put it up.
Yeah. It's like that.
If you have a story or an update, be sure you send it to us via email. (Snail mail is still accepted, too). You may call our tipline, but I’ll tell you this up front: We are on the road so much that being in the car, we have a lot of noise and can’t always listen to the googlevoice calls…we simply can’t hear them. And the voice software that changes the calls to the printed word sucks ass, plain and simple. You’ve seen some of the stupid ways a normal sentence comes in on googlevoice….it’s incomprehensible at times. So it’s not the most reliable way to leave us a tip, plus we get super busy and sometimes simply can’t check it. Email, folks….email email email….remains the best way to contact us. disclosurenewsonline@yahoo.com …send your stuff to us in that way for best response.
There were a LOT of articles, particularly crim, that didn’t make it into this month’s print version (and at this point, we’d like to thank all our contributors who answered the call for help when we realized last Monday we were going to need it). Yes, we could have gone more pages, but we’re trying to control costs, and that’s the easiest way to do it at this point and still bring you color. So those many many articles got jettisoned. You will be reading those online this month; I’m going to strive to get each and every one of them on, starting today with one from Hardin County. By this, you’ll be able to see just HOW MUCH news there is in the region…and how your mainstream media isn’t bothering with it. We literally have two or three from every county in our coverage area. You will be astonished…so be watching.
Lastly….over the next five weeks, the BIG NEWS we were referring to will likely take precedent, along with some huge book signings Ang has lined up (she has one at Barnes & Noble in Evansville on May 19…we’re very excited!), but I’ll just drop this in there…we’ve had a couple of suggestions for special editions. There are things going on behind the scenes here that warrant filling perhaps a 16 or 20 page special edition with a single subject. If we do this, we’ll give you plenty of advance, and that special edition will be on stands at the same time the May-June issue is; it will not supplant it, it’ll just be another issue you can buy. We’re not making any promises, but we are signaling our intent…this new project is expensive, and we need to support it, and what better way than to bring you another newsmagazine that lets you know just what’s going on in your area, enlightens you, entertains you, and helps us do even more for you? Yep, it’s like that. We’re here for you…because we here in southern Illinois are worth all the news we can get, instead of living in a news wasteland where your local papers tell you only what THEY want you to know, national stories that have nothing to do with your lives being placed on the front page, wholesale, important news stories being overlooked….we know you know about it. We’re here to take care of it. Thank you for your continued support…without you, we couldn’t do it.
Now…watch for updates, mark your feeds….and THANK YOU for reading DISCLOSURE!!
Short URL: http://www.disclosurenewsonline.com/?p=12664
Posted by Jack Howser
on May 7 2012. Filed under Uncategorized.
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