In an effort to increase its digital communications and decrease potentially unwanted paper waste for residents, the Town will no longer be delivering its Leisure Activity Guide directly to area households.
At the December 19 General Committee meeting, the Town’s Manager of Marketing, Lisa Spolnik, presented a report recommending that the guide be streamlined to focus specifically on recreation and leisure services and that it be available for pick up at locations throughout Huntsville, Burks Falls, Novar, Baysville, Port Sydney and Utterson.
“Although doorstep delivery is a wonderful service, we can’t be sure that every resident who receives the guide uses it as a resource,” Spolnik noted in her report, adding that a new digital, opt-in newsletter will supplement the print guide to highlight upcoming programs for the month and notify residents of cancellations or changes in programs. Non-leisure content will be available on the Town website, huntsville.ca.
Spolnik estimated that the recommendation would reduce the quantity of guides printed each issue from 12,000 copies to 9,000. In the past, the town has printed a 100-page publication that includes emergency preparedness, accessibility, facility rentals, community contacts, parks and trails, bylaw information, transit information, and recreation and leisure services. Nine thousand copies were distributed via the Huntsville Forester, with the remaining 3,000 available at Town facilities and other pick-up locations.
The cost of printing and distributing the Leisure Guide is funded via advertising revenue. The staff report noted that the change in distribution method, print run and refocused content could affect advertising sales, “however the marketing department is confident that the quality of the publication will be maintained and that the select guide pickup locations will offer optimal exposure for our advertisers thereby maintaining current advertising clients.” The Town will issue a Request for Quotations for printing of the condensed 2018 guide.
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Not a problem if it will save money. Never been a fan of digital only program info.
Just need to know when and where I can get my paper copy as we go through it and circle things and put them on the family calendar.
(Unfortunately digital is sometimes seen as environmentally friendly but e-waste is much harder to recycle than paper. Both paper and digital have their environmental issues )