The News + Record has created two new marketing programs — one featuring free advertising, the other offering $30,000 in matching stimulus grants — for Chatham businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here’s how the two programs work:
‘WE’RE OPEN’
Beginning this week, the newspaper is offering “We’re Open!” advertising to any Chatham County business re-opening after a forced closure related to COVID-19. The News + Record will publish an ad valued at more than $75 to any business previously deemed non-essential or forced to close at no charge in order to give businesses a chance to tell the community their doors are open.
To claim the free advertisement, businesses can email the following to Dawn Parker, the newspaper’s advertising specialist, at dawn@chathamnr.com:
• Photo (high-resolution .jpg) from the business. Selfies are welcome.
• Name, address and telephone number for the business, as well as business hours
• Business logo (high-resolution).
• Your name and best contact information in case there are questions.
The News + Record is also including a running “What’s Open” ticker of business on its website at https://chatham.whatsopenhere.com.
“Some businesses have flourished during the pandemic, but most, as we know, have struggled,” News + Record Publisher Bill Horner III said. “This is a small way for us to help re-opening businesses share that message with customers and potential customers.”
The first business to claim its free “We’re Open” ad is Bobby Steele of Siler City’s Countryside Collectibles; the ad can be found on page A9.
The News + Record recently was named one of just nine North Carolina media outlets, and one of just two community newspapers in the state, as a recipient of a grant from The Facebook Journalism Project COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund. The newspaper will use its $30,300 grant to report about the impact of COVID-19 on the county, particularly among Chatham’s Latinx population. Work on that project will kick off in the next few weeks, according to Horner.
“The competition for the Facebook Journalism grants was pretty stiff,” he said. “We feel fortunate to have been selected. We’re getting a $30,300 grant to help us, so I thought it would be appropriate for us to find a way to give back to the community and to the businesses which support us.”
To that end, the newspaper is offering matching spending stimulus grants in the amounts of $500, $1,000 and $2,000 to any local business, up to $30,000 in total. The grants are a dollar-for-dollar match in new ad campaign spending, meaning, for example, that any business which claims a $500 grant will get options for a $1,000 advertising packages to be published by the end of August with $500 spent.
For more information about the matching grant, contact Horner at bhorner3@chathamnr.com (or by phone at 919-774-2728), or Parker by email (dawn@chathamnr.com) or by phone at 919-930-9668.