Want answers? You’ve come to the right place! I often get asked to respond to issues in unofficial social media groups, and while I truly want to answer all of your questions, social media is time consuming and can be difficult to monitor. I would inevitably miss someone’s question or comment, so I need a format that I can track to ensure I respond to every question you ask.
I started this Ask Me Anything (AMA) as a way to share answers with you. If you have a question or would like clarification on anything Highlands Council related, please submit your question online. Although I may not have every answer, I will respond to all submitted questions. I look forward to hearing from you!
In this edition of Ask Me Anything, I’ll be answering a few questions about why we are switching from Connections News to a magazine format, and what that means for the community.
For more than 10 years, the Issaquah Highlands community has enjoyed Connections printed as a newspaper and delivered to their mailboxes. With this last issue of Connections, we are bidding farewell to an era. Starting in January 2025, Highlands Council is excited to instead publish a quarterly glossy magazine called Community Connect that will be full of information, news and directory services that are important to you.
We know change can be hard, and with this one comes a lot of questions. I answer many of those including the why, the why now, the cost implications, and what you can expect from Community Connect below…
I heard Connections is switching from newspaper to magazine. Why the switch?
We’ve considered the switch to a glossy magazine throughout the years. However, various factors like cost, staff bandwidth and other considerations have never made it the right time.
Over the last two years, printing Connections has grown increasingly difficult. As the demand for newsprint is decreasing, printers are supporting fewer options. Late last year, the printer we used for 10 years let us know they were no longer able to support printing Connections due to the size (dimensions) of the paper. With less than a month before our winter 2024 issue was set to print, our advertisers had already committed to their ads for the year, leaving us without enough time to redesign the paper in a different size.
After extensive research, numerous phone conversations and by utilizing staff connections, we were able to locate another local printer able to accommodate the size of Connections. Unfortunately, the switch to a new printer brought some disappointing limitations: a maximum of 28 pages (compared to our usual 32 or 38 pages), with four of those pages needing to be printed in black and white.
With no other viable options, we gratefully accepted this version of Connections for the four issues in 2024 and decided to pursue a glossy magazine for 2025.
Our team is beyond excited about the new magazine format, and we are celebrating our last limited issue in October 2024. The next era of the Issaquah Highlands publication, called Community Connect, will feature 64 colorful pages bound as a beautiful glossy magazine.
The new magazine will offer so much more local information, resources and news for the Issaquah Highlands community as well as those in greater Issaquah. In addition to what you’ve come to expect from our publications, you can look forward to a more robust community calendar, a business directory, articles featuring both valuable information as well as fun and interesting news from neighbors, and more! We hope you’ll keep and refer to each issue until the next one arrives in your mailbox!
Why change the name?
This was a decision we considered at length. In the end, we decided to move forward with a new name to highlight the expanded resources and content that will be in the magazine. (And the fact that our friends at Costco publish a magazine of similar size called “Connection” played a small role in our decision).
What does it mean for our community financially?
Like the Connections newspaper, Highlands Council will develop each Community Connect magazine issue with the support of local business advertisements and volunteer writers. It has always been our goal to break even on hard costs for our print publication, and we hope to continue that, even with increased print and postage costs.
The production/distribution cost of the magazine is about four times that of the newspaper, so we are especially grateful for the businesses showing their support for our community through their advertising. We encourage you to support those businesses who appear in the magazine, most of which are local small businesses, as they are supporting our community and making it possible to bring this publication to you!
Every home in Issaquah Highlands will continue to receive Community Connect for free by mail, with stacks distributed to local gathering spots, including Swedish Issaquah, nearby coffee shops, and the Issaquah Highlands Park & Ride.
Why not publish electronically only?
There are a couple of main reasons we are continuing a print publication. Most importantly, the majority of residents prefer to receive their information printed (per our annual community survey each year). In addition, certain homeowner’s association information is legally required to be delivered to homeowners via first class mail. We will continue to use Community Connect as this delivery vehicle, as it is not only cost efficient overall, but it provides a win-win for the broader community that enjoys having a printed resource available.
How can I help?
If you’re interested in being more involved or have a business that would like to support the magazine, please reach out to me (lindsey.p@ihcouncil.org) or our communications manager, Maddie (maddie.c@ihcouncil.org). We are seeking writers (no skill required – Maddie is an awesome editor)! There is also space on our Communications Committee for those who would like to participate at a higher level.
Do you have further questions on this topic? Please submit a question below or reach out to me.
