LANSING, Ill. (July 4, 2023) – The Lansing Journal is partnering with a company called NewsKeepsake.com to allow readers to order framed, printed copies of articles we’ve published online.
These are high-end display pieces, and we think these keepsakes will be a premium option for commemorating important occasions. For example:
- Businesses we’ve featured when they won awards or celebrated anniversaries or hosted ribbon-cuttings
- Families whose kids we’ve written about going downstate in athletic, artistic, or academic competitions
- Community members whose milestones we’ve covered — retirements, anniversaries, awards, etc.
Fewer print editions, fewer keepsakes
If The Lansing Journal were still doing a print edition every month, there would be many more opportunities for important stories to appear in print. And those print issues could be saved in people’s scrapbooks or framed for their homes or workplaces.
But the pandemic transformed us into a primarily online news source, so many of our biggest stories have never appeared in print. They never got framed. They never got turned into keepsakes.
It’s not uncommon for people to ask me for “a copy” of an article they saw online. For a while I was responding to these requests by personally laying out an article, printing it, and delivering it. If the recipient asked how much that service cost, I would ask them to make a contribution to The Lansing Journal. Some did; most didn’t. So that was an unsustainable way to do business.
Nicer keepsakes options
Working with NewsKeepsakes.com allows us to respond to those requests by sending a link to our online Keepsakes shop: https://thelansingjournal.com/keepsakes/ People can make their own choices about the product they want, I can stay out of the fulfillment business, and the delivered product is much nicer than what I was providing.
First keepsakes ordered
Early response from readers has been enthusiastic. One reader told me she placed an order of one of our feature articles to give to a local business owner as a retirement gift.
Another reader placed an order for a framed keepsake of her Lansing Journal Journeys submission — what a great idea!
We plan to add other options to the Keepsakes store as well, and we welcome your feedback and ideas.
Serving and sustaining
We hope these News Keepsakes will be another meaningful way The Lansing Journal can serve our community, and we hope the revenue they generate will be another source of support for the local news we report, publish, and deliver every day.
The Keepsakes store is live now, and we’ve added a Keepsakes button to our menu. Managing Editor Josh Bootsma and I plan to shoot a video about it soon to show some actual examples of the products.
Please let us know if you have any questions or ideas regarding this new venture!
Melanie Jongsma, Publisher
The Lansing Journal
