HOT PURSUIT

One of the things I enjoy most about a community newspaper is finding ways to engage readers.

Of course, the easiest way of doing that is just by having readers read all the great stories and look at the photos that we pack into the newspaper. This week there are 40 pages of content (the most we can offer without doing a special section) for you to enjoy.

Another way to involve readers is to offer contests. As I’m sure you’re aware, we began another bingo promotion last month. All readers were sent a bingo card with their newspaper in mid-August, and every week since then we have been publishing five winning numbers. We still haven’t had any winners so keep focused on the bingo ad that we run each week with the numbers. There will be prizes for “S” “C” “T”—the letters symbolizing our newspaper and blackout.

We expect the bingo game to run about 12 weeks, which puts us to about the beginning of November. The grand prize will be $500 for blackout. Not a bad payout for picking up the county’s most read newspaper and playing one of America’s favorite games, bingo.

I want to reiterate one of the rules that our contest judge Audrea at the front desk is stern about. You need to cut out the winning numbers from the newspaper and attach them to the bingo card. Last year she had to disqualify someone because they did not follow that rule.

Another way we are currently trying to get readers involved with the newspaper is through our Football Mania Contest. It’s a 12-week contest where readers pick the winners of 22 local, college and pro football games. Over the past three weeks since the contest began, we have had three different winners, all earning $25 gift cards to Torey’s Restaurant in Owatonna.

Last week’s football winner was Ed Draheim of Owatonna. I think Ed even surprised himself when he found out that he had won by only missing four of the 22 games. He was very appreciative of picking up a gift card to one of Owatonna’s finest restaurants.

Check out the contest in the sports section. All you need to do is pick the winners of the games and mail in or drop off the entry form. Heck, even if you don’t know anything about football, you have a 50/50 chance of picking who will win the games.

In this week’s edition, we also have the Downtown Trivia question running on page 19A. This particular contest runs monthly on the last week of the month. Simply answer a question about downtown Owatonna and you could win a four-month subscription or extension to an existing subscription (valued at $23).

And, last but not least, we continue to run our weekly Dairy Trivia Contest sponsored by my friends at the Steele County American Dairy Association. Each week we educate readers about the dairy industry and offer a trivia question to win gift cards to either the Scream or Culver’s in Owatonna. Who wouldn’t enjoy a favorite ice cream treat?

I have a special request for all our winners and other readers who enjoy playing the contests. Please let our advertisers/sponsors of the various contests know how much you appreciate them for what they are offering. Their support and the engagement of our readers is truly what keeps a community newspaper alive.

As I have mentioned numerous times over the past several years, we love our readers. And we love to come up with small ways to reward our readers through contests and other avenues.

How about going in hot pursuit of playing this week’s contests to increase your chances of becoming a winner?