Revisiting our Roots

Earlier this year, Lisa Mitchell joined our staff here at the Crescenta Valley Weekly. She is a blessing and has kept us in tip-top shape.

Recently, Lisa came across the very first issue of the CV Weekly. She was pretty surprised by how far the paper has come in just two-and-a-half years. Her reaction prompted me to take a minute to review the leaps and bounds we’ve made since September 2009.

We’ve been fortunate from day one in having excellent talent here in writers Mary O’Keefe and Charly Shelton and photographer Leonard Coutin. But we actually began serving the community prior to the first issue hitting the streets. We initially started providing information via mass broadcast through our e-blasts. E-blasts are urgent information sent out via email throughout the week when news breaks as was the case with the evacuations resulting from the Station Fire and subsequent floods. Though we’re a weekly paper, we understand that news happens seven days a week, and the e-blasts give us the chance to get that breaking news to you as it happens. It’s easy to be a member of the “blast zone” – just send me your email address at robin@cvweekly.com and you’ll get information periodically from CV Weekly via email. We don’t “over send” and definitely don’t share e-mail addresses. We Twitter and Facebook, too, so you’ll want to sign on for those as well.

The same day the first paper hit the streets in 2009, we hit the web at www.cvweekly.com. Our website has garnered accolades for its design (courtesy of Caspian Services here in La Crescenta). CVWeekly.com is another way you can find out what’s going on around town seven days a week. Not only is the site updated every Thursday with that week’s print issue, but fresh content is added daily. Some of that content may make it into the following week’s print edition; some may not so it’s a wise idea to visit the site daily to make sure you’re up to speed on what’s happening around town.

One of the things I’m most proud of is our introduction of Quick Response – QR – codes to our readers. With their futuristic look, these little codes carry information for smartphones to decipher, directing the viewer to an accompanying website or other area for additional information on the story or advertisement. We were one of the first newspapers in southern California to offer this technology.

For our second anniversary, we wanted to say “thank you” to our subscribers. What better way than offer a reward for supporting their community newspaper? We launched the Subscriber Rewards Card in September 2011 and now subscribers can show the card around the foothills and get a bonus when they make a purchase at a participating merchant. Every Thursday we feature the business of the week on page 4 with a special offer for our subscribers. To find a list of participating merchants, visit www.cvweekly.com and click on CV Weekly Subscriber Card. Starting in April, we’ll be offering our subscribers free announcements of events that touch their lives, whether an engagement, wedding, birth or obituary. Non-subscribers will pay just $20.

The popularity of tablets didn’t daunt us. We offer a digital copy of the paper that is portable and convenient for those who prefer getting their news via iPad, Nixle, Kindle or whatever.

Our newest addition is Net Notes. These bits of fun information focus on reviews of local events, video games and other entertainment. You can find Net Notes online at cvweekly.com by clicking on the Videos tab.

Of course, we love our pets and encourage our readers to send in a pic of their pet with a brief description and we’ll feature it in our Just For Fun pages. We love pictures so much that we have galleries of them showcasing the many events here in the foothills that we treasure. On our website, click on Photo Gallery and revisit those events that make living here so great.

  robin goldsworthy