NLJ’s Online Expansion

The News Letter Journal’s performance at the Wyoming Press Association’s annual convention is always a source of great pride for the people who provide this community with the most complete source of local news and information available, and this year was no different.
But while we are certainly grateful to have been honored with over a dozen awards at this year’s event, we couldn’t help but be humbled a little bit by the spectacular work done by the vast majority of this state’s newspapers over the course of the past year. 
We tip our hats to the other award winning publications in Wyoming, and thank them for motivating us to continually strive to be better.
But being better isn’t always about winning awards, and while it is certainly nice to be recognized for our efforts, the true measure of success lies in the service we provide to
our community.
That’s why we were excited to be awarded for producing both the best website and the best social media among Wyoming’s small weekly newspapers. 
The rise of the internet has produced economic challenges for our industry that are well-documented (and often exaggerated), but in more recent years advances in
technology have allowed rural newspapers like the NLJ to expand their online presence and increase the amount of information they make available to subscribers and
followers alike.
We are pleased to be able to tell our readers that we were judged to be number one by our peers, but it is even more gratifying to announce that we are going to begin providing even more content to our online audience and have already launched an additional free feature on our website that we invite you to check out this week.
The Rural Business Show is a monthly podcast that is produced by Ben Rowley, a journalist and rural business owner in the western United States. While the half-hour podcasts aren’t flashy, they are informative, and the subject matter isn’t just important for rural business people. The topics are important for everybody who lives in a rural community.
“Rural businesses are the lifeblood of their communities. They provide essential goods and services, as well as jobs for local residents. They give small towns their identities and are an essential part of the world economy,” Rowley says in the open of his show, and we couldn’t agree more.
We encourage you to check out the premiere episode of our newest online offering — which is offered exclusively in Wyoming and the Black Hills through newslj.com — and we think you will understand why we chose the Rural Business Show to be our
featured podcast.
The first installment features Grace Pshigoda and her husband Ashley, who have renovated a historic building in their hometown of Spearman, Texas. They turned the top floor of a 100-year-old structure into a three-room bed and breakfast and are opening the main floor for community meetings and events.
That probably sounds similar to the story of Person of the Year nominees Pam and Chris Gualtieri that was told in the News Letter Journal a few weeks ago, but keep listening and you’ll note a number of other similarities as Grace talks about what her community means to her and why she chose to live and work there over the many other large cities and unique cultures she’s experienced in her life. She shares lessons learned through the renovation process as well as lessons on how to do business in a community of close friends and family members. She talks about what it has meant to her to follow in the footsteps of a grandmother who did a lot of important work in the community during her lifetime and was even honored by the governor of the state.
Grace also discusses resources small communities need in order to strengthen their local economies and shares advice to those looking to build businesses in their
small towns.
“The process wasn’t easy as the couple was told by a contractor the building should be condemned. They persevered through torrential downpours coming through the roof, a flooding basement, and a variety of other obstacles in order to turn the building back into an asset for the community. And they did all this on top of their regular full-time jobs as well as a farming and ranching operation,” Rowley wrote of the couple’s adventure.
Other episodes of the podcast offer the same kind of interesting looks at life in
communities like ours by telling the stories of people like us, and we’re thrilled to bring you more of this informative and valuable content through our growing and
improving website.
So please check out newslj.com today and see some of the other free features that we have made available to you.