PUBLISHER’S COLUMN
Are newspapers the dinosaur of our era? Absolutely not By Diane Kortus Publisher
Are newspapers the dinosaurs of our era, doomed to extinction because of the Internet and social media? I’ve been asked that question countless times as the online world explodes with more news sites, postings and blogs than one can possibly imagine. And my answer is absolutely not — especially not community newspapers like The Laker/Lutz News. So it’s tongue-incheek that we chose T-Rex as our theme to promote our papers at community events, marketing ourselves as the T-Rex of newspapers. By now, hopefully, you realize your paper is much larger than its previous size. In August, we took a leap of faith and went from a tabloid size, to one that is the same size as a daily newspaper.That’s a 30 percent jump in page size. To introduce our larger format to the business community, we produced a fun video that I also invite you to watch. It’s on YouTube, and you can find it at tinyurl.com/LakerXLVideo. In our video’s opening scene, you’ll see vibrating glasses of water mimicking that iconic moment in “Jurassic Park” right before T-Rex burst into the scene. And here’s why we want you to make the connection between T-Rex and The
Laker/Lutz News: • To give you a visual that our papers are bigger — the T-Rex of community newspapers. We’re bucking the industry trend of shrinking sizes and fewer pages. • We’ve both been around a long time. Dinosaurs walked the Earth for 160 million years, and our papers have been in circulation longer than any other weekly newspaper in north suburban Tampa:The Lutz News since 1964, and The Laker since 1981. • By making T-Rex our icon, we’re debunking the myth head-on that newspapers are on a path to extinction. The Laker/Lutz News has never been financially stronger, and we’re not alone. Community newspapers everywhere are thriving because we give people news about their community that they look forward to reading, and cannot get anywhere else. The Internet and social media have not, and will not, replace the relevancy of community newspapers.We too have an active Facebook page, and a growing website with more than 25,000 page views each month.While impressive, this still does not compare to the 64,000 people who read us each and every week. Why is our printed product so popular? Industry research consistently reports that people prefer reading stories about their neighbors, community groups and upcoming events in a traditional printed newspaper they hold in their hands. Since increasing our size, we have received overwhelming support from
California group buys West Winds By Michael Hinman mhinman@lakerlutznews.com
West Winds Assisted Living Facility is no longer locally owned. The 75-bed for-profit facility, located at 37411 Eiland Blvd., in Zephyrhills, was sold Oct. 1 to Sabra Health Care Holdings III, which lists its address in Irvine, California, according to Pasco County property records. West Winds Prime LLC was the seller.The
Palm Harbor company’s ownership has essentially managed the facility through various companies since West Winds opened in 2008. Sabra is a real estate investment trust that acquires senior citizen housing, memory care and skilled nursing facilities around the country. It purchased West Winds for $10.2 million, adding it to six skilled nursing facilities and three senior housing facilities Sabra purchased through the first half of 2014 for $141.5 million, according to its filing with the
SUZANNE BEAUCHAINE/STAFF PHOTO
T-Rex is the theme of The Laker/Lutz News’ community exhibit, such as this display at the recent Pasco Hernando Hispanic Chamber of Commerce business expo at Wesley Chapel Toyota.
readers and advertisers. More stories in the paper mean it is a better read, and more readers result in more customers for our advertisers. We have positioned The Laker/Lutz News to be the No. 1 source of local news,
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s not clear how many facilities purchased recently, but a newspaper in Nashville reported the REIT closed on a facility there around the same time for $21.1 million. Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, are financial securities that allow investors to buy ownership into a property or mortgage, rather than in a company that’s typically found on the stock market. Investors in such projects usually earn a percentage of profit from rents or fees collected from tenants in those properties, and would receive a portion of any profits made when the REIT sells that project to someone else. Through the end of June, Sabra already
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owned six skilled nursing facilities in Florida, according to the company’s website.That includes a 107-bed campus in Fort Pierce the company purchased last March as part of a two-facility, $24.5 million deal. West Winds did not respond to a request for comment. This is the third largest real estate transaction in Pasco this year, behind the $36.1 million sale of the Arlington at Northwood apartment complex in Wesley Chapel, and the $16 million sale of more than 330 acres of land in Wiregrass Ranch to make way for a proposed 550-home subdivision. Both of those transactions took place in May.
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October 29, 2014
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