Page 23 of In This Moment

Rising, he left his office and yanked an extra chair beside her desk. “Whatcha got?” By the look of it, she had a thousand tabs open.

“First, there’s the website.” She moved her mouse and pulled up the server program. “The only thing on it is an About page and the Home page.” More clicking. “I added a Contact tab, which has our images and emails, like the sign up front. Is that okay?”

“Absolutely. It looks good.” It did, too. She’d changed the plain blue background to off-white and framed it to make it look like a newspaper with Vallantine Gazette as the header on all pages. Clever. “I’d maybe add a picture of the front window, magazine racks, and the glass display cabinet to the About page.”

“Good idea.” She paused, staring at the screen. “I created a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Links to those are replicated on all pages. I’m thinking every time we send out or print an issue, we post highlights on both accounts. For instance,” she brought up the Twitter account, “this is what I just posted.”

Weather is looking great in Vallantine today. See if that’s going to change in the coming week…

“Hmm. Smart.” She’d linked the Tweet back to the Gazette’s site. Teasing, and making the reader go check out what’s in store.

“So, we’d do that for all print sections. A partial headline with an open-ended cliffhanger to get them to click.”

“Brilliant. Can I get the login info?”

“Already emailed it to you. My message to Joan and Jefferson just had the links for them to follow.” She switched pages. “I updated the Home page. Nothing major there. I added an Advertise page where businesses can email you to pay to advertise with us. I put a rate for quarter and half pages, with two different options for print or e-print. Here’s where things get fun.” A blank page opened. “If we’re going to do an e-print version, we’re going to want readers to have links to back issues. I think we should start doing those with Friday’s print run. Thus, this page will be links with issue dates.”

He scratched his chin, staring in thought. “How would you suggest we do an e-print?” He’d never been on the tech side of distribution before. They didn’t have the funds to hire a service.

And her honeysuckle scent was distracting as hell.

“Oddly, that’s the easy part.” She backed out and went to what looked like an administration page. “Our web server has email marketing as an option. It’s tiered for pricing. Considering there’s about twenty-five hundred residents in Vallantine, we won’t go above tier two. Thus, we’d only be paying fifty bucks a year.” She went to yet another page. “In essence, we’d be doing a newsletter. Either one of us can put it out. It’s as simple as copying and pasting what you send to the printers, just in one long column with a hyperlinked table of contents.”

What she was doing was making him feel stupid for not checking into this sooner. “How do they subscribe and how do we collect payment?” Gunner’s people were in charge of physical copies and payment. Graham never had to deal with it.

“There’re two signup forms I created. One for print, which is automatically drafted monthly, and is a higher fee at this rate.” She pointed to the screen. “That number is at the low end of the national average. It has them plug in their address for delivery and payment info. I added a PayPal option besides just a credit card.” She switched screens. “This form is for e-print email delivery at this rate.” She pointed. “Again, drafted monthly, and if they unsubscribe, the program will remove them from the newsletter at the top of the month and quit auto-drafting funds. The site updates will go live at one a.m. Friday. I’ll need you to get banking deets from Gunner for money to get dumped.”

He shot off a quick text to Gunner to do just what she requested. Leaning back in his seat, he cracked his knuckles. “You’re one impressive woman. Hard part will be getting subscribers.”

“I have a plan.”

Rubbing his eyes, he laughed. “Of course, you do.”

Yet another screen. “The town’s website for tourism has all the shops and restaurants listed with addresses, websites, and contact emails. I plugged the latter into a CSV file. I’ve scheduled an email to go out Friday morning to all local businesses announcing a facelift for the Gazette and our advertising rates. Links to social media and how to sign up for subscriptions, too. I also mentioned requests for product reviews or food critiques go to your email so you can assign Joan accordingly.”

He'd be damned. “Wow. Great idea.”

She then spewed something about the second email list being small, but it, too, would go out Friday morning to the elementary, middle, and high school administrators with Graham’s info for them to forward school announcements or athletic games for the Gazette to post. How she thought up this stuff was beyond him. The local shops and schools alone would bring in enough revenue to get them in the black with advertising and subscribers. The third list was residents who were already print subscriptions or had signed up through email before. Two-hundred eighty-seven people. Not a lot when compared to census, but hopefully it would climb. Especially if her idea of sending out a free issue of Friday’s paper to all three email lists would show the Gazette’s changes to townsfolk and get them to register.

He rubbed his jaw. “Friday’s issue is going to need to be fantastic.”

“Yes, sir.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but a knock on the front door had her snapping it closed again.

Dorothy came out of his office. “That’s Scarlett. I’ll let her in. As you were.”

Once the commotion of Hurricane Scarlett subsided, Graham asked Rebecca to open a spreadsheet. “Let’s start a list of content. I think we should put in specific roles on the website and in the newspaper every issue based on content, so people know who to email with tips.”

She nodded, her fingers a blur over the keyboard. “Divide and conquer.”

“Yep.” He ticked his first point off on a finger. “Weather is obvious. Why don’t we pull Atlanta and Savannah’s forecasts daily.”

“I can do that. Can also report on any upcoming storms or hurricanes we’d be affected by.”

“Perfect.” He scrolled through notes in his head. “We need a catchy title for Joan’s content.”

Her lips pursed adorably in thought. “Word on the Street? Since she’s doing reviews or critiques.”

“Nice. Let’s go with it.”

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