Notes From Perry Street: After two years, a familiar old friend returns

It was roughly a decade ago when Corby, my wife affectionately known as The Little Black Dress, and I met at Alan Jackson’s office. We are talking about the excellent local attorney, not the singer.

We were there to sign papers to buy “The Coweta Shopper” from Joe Williams. It was Thanksgiving Eve, and we joked that everyone had something to be thankful for – namely we got a newspaper, and Joe got out of one. If you are in the business, you understand.

We soon changed the name to “The Shopper,” primarily because we wanted to expand it outside of Coweta County. We also started adding more local content.

A couple of years ago, we changed “The Shopper” to “The Weekly.” One reason showed up in our mailbox. A coupon pamphlet called “theshopper.net” appeared out of nowhere. People started emailing and calling us, asking if it was ours. It’s not. We are a newpaper, the other is an advertising pamphlet.

We also wanted to try something new and went with “The Weekly.” We even came up with a different way to fold the newspaper. “The Weekly,” to be fair, was a good idea that just fell flat.

Think about “New Coke.”

People just didn’t take hold of the name change.

Corby and John Winters

“So you don’t have “The Shopper” anymore”

Yes, it’s just called “The Weekly.”

“So it’s new?”

“Same content, different name.”

“Uh huh.”

We also started “The Paper,” a monthly filled with what “to see, eat and do.” Live music, local columnists and artists, food, movies, calendars of anything and everything, a strong non-profit focus and lots more.

From 1,500 copies to 10,000 today, “The Paper” is now in three counties at more than 125 locations. Print is still very powerful.

It’s also the publication we thought “The Shopper,” er, “The Weekly,” would be. So instead of fighting how things are working out, we decided to go back to our roots. And those roots date back to 1989.

The Shopper/The Weekly is now, once again, “The Coweta Shopper.” It will go out three times a month, each week to different zip codes.

So, Winters Media has The Paper and The Coweta Shopper(s). We have loved what we do and look forward to the next 10 years and beyond. Thank you for your continued support, and remember to “advertise local.” We are here to help market and continue to grow your business.

John and Corby