The Reminder is proud to welcome a new member to our staff. Say hello to Beth-Ann Dobson, our new advertising sales representative.
Dobson began on the job in August and is tasked with selling and organizing advertising for The Reminder - a crucial job that both allows the paper to continue operating and promotes local business.
Dobson is a former employee of The Reminder, having worked at the paper as an advertising designer starting in 1999. Her last name is synonymous with the paper - it was Tom Dobson who originally began The Reminder in 1946.
“There is a tie. There is a bit of a heartstring pull when I think about Tom,” she said.
“I was here when the news office was really busy and the rooms were full of smoke - it was a real hive.”
Dobson also ran a “coffee-time” style publication called Pause for Thought before embarking on different career paths.
“I’m excited. This gives me a lot of room to grow, to make those connections again,” she said.
Speaking about her previous time with the paper, Dobson said she felt community engagement was a big part of making a local newspaper successful. Some things have changed in the meantime, she says, but she believes any local newspaper must be engaged with the community it covers.
“It was busy, there was a lot of community engagement. There seems to have been since then, because of social media or whatever, been a disconnect,” she said.
“I recognize that some of the tried and true businesses that have been there in the past are still with us and reliable - it’s not a complete disconnect. There’s still a lot of good support out there.”
While Dobson has not been directly involved in newspaper sales before, she feels her knowledge of the business and its history will be an asset for The Reminder today. Already, she plans to use knowledge of what’s worked in the past to help shape the present - one of Dobson’s plans is restore The Reminder’s annual cutest pet competition, which the paper has not held since before COVID-19 hit.
“I’ve been on that side of things - it’s interesting to be on the sales side of things and I can apply that knowledge that I had in design with the team that we have here,” she said.
“It’s about the awareness of what’s happening in the community, thinning more in terms of the public in general becoming involved and wanting to get the paper, wanting to open the paper.”
Dobson’s main goal is to help The Reminder become a key part of the lives of people living in Flin Flon and the surrounding region.
“I’m a sharing person. I like to connect with people. I like to have them be a part of what’s going on in the community and that includes the paper,” she said.
“I’d love to see the paper become more of a part of people’s lives.”
Dobson can be reached via email at [email protected].
