Chesapeake Mayor Dick Gilpin prides himself on knowing what is going on in his community and the rest of Lawrence County. But it doesn’t hurt to get a little extra help from the headlines.

Gilpin said the addition of The Chesapeake Tribune has been a great benefit for the community.

“I think it is a great opportunity for us to get information out to our residents,” Gilpin said. “I hear more and more people are picking up the paper, asking me if I have seen something in the paper.”

The Tribune launched The Chesapeake Tribune and The Proctorville Tribune, along with their corresponding Web sites, one year ago as a way to better serve those communities and provide more local news to the residents.

Through a partnership with St. Mary’s Medical Center, these zoned editions allow The Tribune to reach more than 2,000 additional readers.

“These editions have been the natural evolution of our goal: To serve all of Lawrence County and provide the best possible avenue for news, information and advertising,” Tribune Publisher Michael Caldwell said. “This has been a tremendous success and we appreciate the partnership with St. Mary’s that has helped us expand our distribution and better serve these individual communities, while also growing our news content for the Ironton area as well.”

“St. Mary’s Medical Center certainly appreciates its advertising partnership with the Tribune.,” said Doug Korstanje, director of Marketing and Community Relations for St. Mary’s Medical Center.

“This newspaper is a trusted source of news and information for Lawrence County, and we at St. Mary’s were thrilled with the opportunity to help provide the paper at no cost to readers.

As president of the Greater Lawrence County Area Chamber of Commerce, Proctorville resident Bob Smith has seen first-hand the impact these newspapers have had locally.

“I think is has been a very valuable addition. I think it gives Chesapeake, Proctorville sort of a sense of pride to know that someone is paying attention to them, when you are able to pick up a newspaper and see your own community listed,” he said.

Ruth Damron, director of the Chesapeake Community Center, agrees.

“(The Tribune) has been very helpful, helping us advertise events we have been having to help raise money for our roof,” she said. “Without you we wouldn’t be nearly as fortunate as we are.”

A goal of any newspaper is to gain new readers. Capturing younger readers is something that can pose an extra challenge. But providing these zoned editions to those schools and partnering with its Newspapers in Education program, The Tribune is promoting literacy and involvement in our communities.

“I see value in having a local section that is specific to our needs,” said Evelyn Capper, Fairland High librarian. “I notice our high school students seem to read it more often. It is of more interest to them now.”