By: Sharon Aron Baron
Our Town News, the monthly magazine that is distributed to several Broward County cities, was giving other cities free ad space.
Except ours.
According to our city clerk, Tamarac was paying $500 for multiple insertions out of the city commission advertising budget for the “Mayors Message,” whereas the cities of Parkland and Coral Springs pay nothing, according to public records.
I asked Editor-in-Chief of Our Town News Brian Weidenbacher, why our city was being charged for what other cities were getting for free. He said that John Brodie, who was the former general manager of Our Town News, “bartered” those deals. Weidenbacher added that Brodie was no longer with the company and was “let go.”
Our Town News is mailed to homeowners in Coral Springs and Parkland, but you won’t find them here, unless you pick one up at city hall or other outlets that may carry them. So it seems surprising that our city would pay for publication in a magazine when so few of our residents would see it.
Weidenbacher added that Our Town News would be expanding in the future, so hopefully, this publication will be mailed out to our residents as well. Until then, our city should stop paying them for what others are getting for free.
