01Oct

Two-Lane Livin on a Four-Lane Bridge

I have been invited to join Diane Ludwig of the Little Kanawha Area Development Corporation (LKADC) to take part in “Walk West Virginia in a Day” program at the 2009 New River Gorge Bridge Day in Fayetteville October 17.

Diane’s organization represents Calhoun and Wirt County, and with a limited budget for hand-outs and presentations, Diane has asked Two-Lane Livin’ to help represent businesses in the area and provide past issues of our magazine to represent Central West Virginia.

We don’t really have any past issues from the last six months, since we reached 100% readership for those issues, but we do have some from our first year-and-a-half (when we only had a 95% readership level) filled with information that never expires.

So, Two-Lane Livin’ is headed to a four-lane celebration.

I have never been to Bridge Day. The thought of the large crowd has, in the past, been enough for me to say, “I think I’ll pass.” Diane has never been there either. She’s afraid of heights.

Aren’t we a pair to head to Bridge Day? <giggle>

Of course, we won’t be on the bridge. We’ll be set up on the approach to the bridge, which I assume, is the four-lane highway leading to it. We also had to get security clearance to be there, so I’m assuming it’s a crowd-controlled situation.

Still, for this country mouse, it’s a big deal, and a great opportunity to introduce more people to the columnists in Two-Lane Livin’ Magazine.

While we do deliver to Nicholas County, we don’t quite reach into Fayetteville. We don’t have enough copies as it is, and the “theories” that readers are converting to online media just don’t seem to be happening with us. Traffic to our online edition is one-eighth of our print readership level, and the demand is for print copies, not for online expansion.

At this time.

My hope, in introducing print copies to those outside our region, is to increase our online readership. Of course, more print edition subscribers would help us reach that goal of meeting requirements for bulk-mail rates for our subscribers. And, obviously, it would be nice to make connections with more businesses that would want to promote and advertise with us in order to reach our 38,000-plus readers in Central West Virginia.

Of course, the reason I’m there is to represent our region, and our counties. We have columnists from Wirt, Calhoun, Gilmer, Jackson, Upshur, Braxton, Clay, Roane and Lewis Counties. We distribute to 16 counties, and we reach right up to – but do not cross – the New River Gorge Bridge.

For Two-Lane Livin’, Bridge Day is a door to a new frontier, a chance for us to reach outside our region. A chance to make personal connections to build our online community.

And who knows? I may even have some fun.