Even though we’re in the magazine publishing business here at Advocate Media, we spend only about half of our day working on our magazines.
What do we do with the rest of the time?
Well, these days there are all kinds of ways to deliver news and information to readers.
For example, you may not know that every day — generally three or four times a day, in fact — we update our advocatemag.com website with neighborhood news and information that happens after one month’s magazine is completed and before another month’s magazine can be delivered.
Restaurant openings, neighborhood business news, crime updates, events you can attend — you can find all of this information at advocatemag.com in our Daily Digest. Because of timing and relevance, much of the daily news information on our website never appears in our magazine, so if you can make time to read both, you’ll know a whole lot more about what’s happening around you.
Don’t have time to check out our website every day? Sign up for our weekly emailed news update, which recaps some of the top stories from the past week’s Daily Digest, along with additional information, photos and videos that don’t make it into the magazine. To sign up for that weekly publication, go to advocatemag.com/newsletters.
We do the same thing with restaurant news and deals, except that emailed digest goes out every other week; you can sign up for that one at advocatemag.com/newsletters, too.
Say you’re a big Facebook fan and like to scroll through news on that site — like the Advocate on Facebook and let us stream daily updates directly to you that way. Same with Twitter: Sign up to follow our Twitter account, and you’ll always be up-to-date as we report on all kinds of interesting neighborhood happenings and events.
OK, now say you have spare time for reading at lunch or a kids’ sporting event or anywhere you happen to be, but say you left your Advocate magazine at home. We have an app with our current and many of our past issues: Go to the Android or Apple iOS store, search for “Dallas Advocate” and download our app for use on your tablet or smartphone.
Our app gives you an interactive way to read the magazine and also connect with advertisers and groups we’re writing about, since most web links in the magazine are clickable right from the application — if you’re looking for a local electrician, lawn guy, veterinarian, Realtor or whatever, you can search for what you’re seeking, check out their website directly from the magazine app, and make your decision about spending money right then and there.
And say your hot water heater just broke and you need a plumber right away: Go to classifieds.advocatemag.com, and there you’ll find virtually all of the local people who advertise in our magazine (and some who don’t) online and available at the click of a button.
Finally, if you’re a neighborhood business, we can help build your website, set up and manage your social media accounts, and continue making sure that you stay in contact with your customers, both existing and prospective.
We’re always working on more and better ways to bring neighborhood businesses together with neighborhood residents, and as I mentioned earlier, we’re spending a lot of our time doing so.
I hope you’ll keep reading our magazine, visiting our website and app, and checking out our social media sites to keep up to date with what’s happening throughout our neighborhood.
