What happened to my Pelican Press?

Dear Readers:
Wednesday was a big day for us. It marked the completion of the transition of the Pelican Press’ ownership from Milwaukee-based Journal Community Publishing Group to our company, The Observer Group Inc. And it marked the first week our combined staffs produced the Sarasota Observer and Pelican Press.

Many of our readers need to know this because they may be wondering why they’re receiving a Sarasota Observer on their driveways and not a Pelican Press. Or they may be wondering why they can’t find a Pelican Press in the usual place.

Now that the Pelican Press has become part of our family of community weeklies (which also include the Longboat Observer and East County Observer here and the Palm Coast Observer on the east coast of Florida), this week marks a shift in distribution for the Pelican Press.

We’re taking the Pelican Press back to its roots — focusing more of its content and distribution on Siesta Key, making it the community newspaper and primary source of news and information about Siesta Key and for Siesta Key residents and business owners.

In Sarasota, the Sarasota Observer will become the more visible paper and full of more Sarasota-oriented content.

This doesn’t mean the Pelican Press will lose the trademark for which it has become known — the strong and aggressive reporting on Sarasota County and Sarasota city governments. That will remain. But those stories now will appear in the Pelican Press and the Sarasota Observer.

In short, the two papers will carry the same government and arts-and-entertainment content. When it comes to covering community events, readers will find the Sarasota Observer focusing on Sarasota and the Pelican Press focusing on Siesta Key.

We know there are many Pelican Press fans in Sarasota. We hope they give us a chance. We’d like to guarantee they will find the Sarasota Observer as good as, if not better, than what they had before.

Please don’t hesitate to let us know how we can improve.