‘This one’s on us’; Canyon Media offers free advertisement to support local businesses

The Canyon Media Center, St. George, Utah, 2019 | Photo by Canyon Media, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — When the owners of Canyon Media decided to ring in 2020 with a new mission statement, “here for you,” it was meant to define what the entire team has always known in their hearts to be true. However, it was while working through the coronavirus crisis that they truly saw their role as a resource for Southern Utah.

“With everything that’s been going on, we want to do whatever we possibly can to help the community right now,” Canyon Media General Manager Ben Lindquist said.

Canyon Media and St. George News recently partnered with area restaurants to develop stgeorgedining.com, a local restaurant cooperative that lists dozens of nearby eateries that are still open and offering takeout or delivery services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting Monday, the family-owned media company has started the Here For You Relief Package to help other local businesses during the pandemic.

Lindquist said during the past few weeks, listenership has exploded on all of Canyon Media’s radio stations, from Pedro and Suleyma’s morning show on Juan 106 FM to Lukas and LaRae on Planet 105.1. And more people than ever are going online for the latest information from St. George News. The media company has seen twice as many average daily readers on St. George News and a 40% increase in radio listeners. And with thousands of people relying on media service every day for information, it has created an abundance of advertising space that they are now able to share with the community.

We genuinely want to help every single business that wants to reach out,” he said.

Any time during the month of April, or until their advertising inventory runs out, all businesses in Southern Utah, including nonprofits, can request 20 free, 30-second radio ads on any of Canyon Media’s radio stations and 20,000 banner ads to be placed on the St. George News website.

“There’s no strings attached, there’s no production charge, there’s no design charge, there’s no run charge. … This one’s on us,” Lindquist said, adding that everyone at Canyon Media has been wanting to find ways to help.

They expect quite a bit of demand, but the entire team is working around the clock to make it happen. 

The process is simple, Lindquist said. Business owners can find all of the necessary information to apply on Canyon Media’s website.

President of News Operations Shane Brinkerhoff said the recent public health crisis has reinforced the importance of the mission of St. George News: to be a beacon of accuracy and the number one resource for local information.

“It’s in times like this when you do realize how important you are to the community,” he said. “It is so important for them to know what’s going on and where they can go.”

Brinkerhoff said right now they have many people reaching out for accurate information about Washington and Iron counties. Nearly the entire community has been stuck at home, and many are reading St. George News for the latest updates.

Stock image, St. George News

Since the closures may be longer than first anticipated, he hopes free advertising will help businesses get through these difficult times together.

“People are utilizing us. In these uncertain times, we realize how valuable we are to the community as a resource. There really is only one place for information in Southern Utah,” Brinkerhoff said. “We’re trying to help keep these guys in business because it doesn’t matter how much business that we’re doing if they’re not there when we all come out of this together in the end.”

Lindquist said their responsibility to the community is a mantle the entire team intends to represent. Even if they can just help businesses get through for a week or two, it is worth it.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re open, it doesn’t matter if they had to be closed, or if they’re still are open and they have limited hours, we want to help them. We want them to be able to get a message out of what’s going on and what they’re doing. … We want as much as possible to come through for our local businesses right now.”

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews 

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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