Regional magazine expands reach to New Brunswick

13 years ago

By Mark Putnam
Managing editor
    Cross-border shopping has always been an important part of the Aroostook County economy and with the Canadian dollar buying more in the U.S., the number of shoppers from neighboring New Brunswick doing business in northern Maine is high and growing.
    Officials with Northeast Publishing Co. in Presque Isle are looking for ways to help their advertising clients reach these potential Canadian customers where they live and work so they can review the goods and services available before heading across the border.
    The free monthly publication, County Crossroads, has been produced and distributed throughout Aroostook County and tourist information centers along Interstate 95 since 2000. Its publisher has now expanded the regional magazine’s reach by direct mailing seasonal editions to every household along New Brunswick’s St. John River valley corridor from Grand Falls to Woodstock.
    “It is no secret that Canadians are coming here to shop in great numbers, just look in the shopping center parking lots on any given day,” said Pam Lynch, Northeast Publishing Co. business manager and advertising director. “We want to help our businesses get their advertising message to this important market,” she added.
    To that effect, Northeast has selected several key months of the year to print an additional 21,000 copies of Crossroads to send into New Brunswick via the Canadian Postal Service. The October issue, focused on a snowmobile theme, will be distributed in Canada.
    “We chose the October issue due to the fact that it is the last month before the holiday season and advertisers who get their message out before the busy time hits are much more likely to be seen,” said Lynch.
    Lynch said County Crossroads’ October edition will also be distributed at three upcoming tradeshows: the Maine Snowmobile Show in Augusta, the New Hampshire Grass Drags in Fremont, N.H., and the Powersports Expo in Springfield, Mass.
    Other months that have been identified for expanded Canadian circulation are the May and July  Çounty Crossroads. In addition, the holiday “County Gift Guide” will be mailed to New Brunswick homes in addition to being inserted into weekly newspapers in November.
    County Crossroads is a sister publication to NEP’s three weekly newspapers — The Star-Herald, the Aroostook Republican & News, and the Houlton Pioneer Times. The theme of Crossroads covers areas of Aroostook County’s unique appeal from festivals and events to recreation, hunting and fishing.
    For more information on rates and placement, contact your local newspaper office.