Letter from the Publisher

Welcome to your ALL NEW, COMPLETELY RE-IMAGINED Community Resource Guide.

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER CONNECT, PROMOTE, DISCOVER WITH TOTAL LOCAL NEW PUBLISHING CYCLE, CONTENT, & BRANDING

Welcome to the 2021 issue of the Total Local Community Resource Guide! We invite you to check out all of our new features, including an expanded community information section, park and golf course maps, restaurant menus, coupons, community history, photos, recipes, and more that makes the DeWitt, Bath, and Laingsburg communities unique. While we made the decision in 2019 to add this new content to our directories, we’ve needed to make some additional changes to accommodate the unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic.

PUBLISHING SCHEDULE Coronavirus is the greatest challenge we’ve faced in our 10 year history of publishing a directory for the DeWitt - Bath - Laingsburg community. COVID-19 will continue to have an impact in the year to come and many of our small business advertisers are struggling to stay afloat. As a result, we realized that publishing the directory would need to be pushed out. The directory will now be a 2021 directory and next year the directory will be published as a 2022 directory as well.

NEW FORMAT To distinguish ourselves as a Community Resource Guide, and not just a telephone directory, our business directory is no longer on yellow pages. In fact, each of the sections in our directory now have color coded edges so that you can turn to exactly which section you would like to view: the community information is blue; the community directory is grey; menus are purple; coupons are yellow; and the business directory is orange.

MODERN DESIGN Our new logo and brand image uses a cleaner, fresher design and our tagline now includes Marketing Services as well as Community Resource Guides. Our aim is to help each community and its organizations connect with one another, promote the businesses that we serve through advertising and online marketing, as well as help visitors and new movers discover the things that make DeWitt, Bath, and Laingsburg unique.

ONLINE PLANS As they say hindsight is 20/20, and had we known the pandemic would be so disruptive, we would have had a contingency plan in place. Now we know that we need to be flexible and adapt to the constantly changing circumstances. We will continue to add social media to our business model and are developing a new Total Local website. Our current website is just a temporary placeholder until we’re able to bring you a website that will help to feature each community and all of our advertisers.

Thank you for your continued support during this health crisis. Most of us will continue to work from home in 2021, but are available for in-person appointments. Please feel free to contact me at tmiller@totallocal.com or 517-441-9393 with any questions. Wishing you a happy, healthy year and we hope that you stay safe!

Best regards, Teresa Miller President & Publisher