Stop the presses! Let’s hear it for/from our readers!

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By DENIS WOULFE, Denis@MonitorSaintPaul.com or 651-917-4183

I’ve spent the last few weeks helping to introduce the Midway Como Monitor’s new owner, Tesha M. Christensen, to Monitor advertisers, readers, and other stakeholders. And during that process it has reminded me of the early days of working for the Midway Como Monitor. I accepted the position as editor of the Monitor back in 1979, when I graduated from Hamline University, and found a small room to rent in a home on Van Buren Ave. I was able to make it to the office in about five minutes flat back in those days, assuming it wasn’t during the State Fair!

I do recall from our days when we had an office at Thomas and Fairview in the Midway that we often would have many visitors drop by from the neighborhood. One was Kiki Sonnen, who was the Hamline Midway Coalition’s second community organizer and then later served on the St. Paul City Council. She would often stop by with a press release or news of an upcoming meeting to publicize. She might ask about when the Monitor would be coming out next so she could be sure to set a community meeting date where folks would have ample notice by including the announcement in the next Monitor.

Each time Sonnen would enter the front door of our office space she would shout as loud as she could: “STOP THE PRESSES!” It became a running joke, of course, since we really didn’t have any presses to operate in our office, but it certainly did signal her arrival and the fact that she had some information to share with the Monitor.

Over the years, we had many visitors to the Monitor’s offices, particularly when we were going through the process of endorsing candidates for public office. We had visits from then Congressman Bruce Vento, former Ward 4 City Councilmember Bob Fletcher, and I even remember having a particularly interesting interview with now presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar, who was running for Hennepin County Attorney at the time. Growing up as the daughter of Star Tribune columnist Jim Klobuchar certainly made for a very interesting conversation and being a journalist myself, I had a lot of questions.

How we get information as a community newspaper has changed over the years, and truth be told, most of our information comes to us digitally today. Each day we receive dozens of press releases from the City of St. Paul, Ramsey County, businesses, and churches and other nonprofit groups. But we also would like to hear more often from you, our loyal readers.

You might have read in last month’s edition that the Monitor’s new owner has been a reporter for the Monitor for the past eight years. She is already well versed on many issues of vital concern to Midway Como residents. But as part of that transition, we are reaching out to residents and business owners like you to find out just what you like about the Monitor and what you’d like to change.

If you have an idea for a story or want to introduce yourself to the new owner and editor, Tesha M. Christensen, you can email her at Tesha@MonitorSaintPaul.com or call her directly at 612-345-9998. What do you like about the Monitor? What do you dislike? What would you like to see more of?

Or maybe you’d like to find out more about advertising opportunities in the Monitor? I hear this question quite a bit, but just to say this, it is through the advertising of our local businesses that we are able to bring you the Monitor each month. And, in turn, it is those same local businesses who want to reach out to local residents like you for their customer base. A community newspaper like the Monitor recognizes that bond between businesses and their local customer base and we help facilitate it. And we need your support now more than ever before. And we need you to acknowledge that support with our advertisers and other community stakeholders.

But you might also know that the options for advertising have changed over the years. In addition to run of press ads in the newspaper, we also offer inserts that can be directed to specific routes in the Monitor delivery area. Inserts can also be a great option for a new restaurant or a church holding a special event. We also offer a special Partner Insert Program where we pair two local businesses to print and distribute a flyer. That makes distributing flyers more reasonable than ever before.

And don’t forget online advertising (you can find us online all the time at www.MonitorSaintPaul.com). Online ads can be placed online almost immediately and it’s a nice complement to appearing in the printed newspaper.

I’d be happy to continue this conversation with you directly. Send me a note at Denis@MonitorSaintPaul.com or call me at 651-917-4183.

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