Several readers have contacted Nexonr to comment on the reduced amount of advertising on the webpage as local businesses cut costs to try and beat the crisis.
Unfortunately, many local businesses have withdrawn their advertising from the webpage, despite rock bottom prices, because they claim our readers are not supporting them.
The contract with NEXOnr readers has always been that local businesses will financially support this English language news service on the basis that readers shop locally and thus support local commerce. Many small businesses claim this simply is not happening and that “they never see any English speaking shoppers.”
The advertisers who have remained loyal to NEXOnr, many of which have been with us from the bilingual days of the newspaper, are also struggling to survive as the financial crisis and high local unemployment grips Calasparra.
Unlike most towns and villages in the UK Calasparra still has butchers, bakers and small artisanal shops and although only a handful of shopkeepers actually speak English the goods offered are traditional and the service friendly.
Shopping locally can be time consuming but most local residents consider it more a pastime than a chore: a chance to catch up on the local gossip, meet friends and, for English speaking residents, a valuable opportunity to brush up those Spanish language skills.
If we want to conserve the authenticity of this small town that has adopted us we need to spend the little money most of us have within our community.
Here at NEXOnr we are struggling to continue providing this English language news and information service on the Internet and we would like to take this opportunity of thanking those advertisers who have stayed with us through thick and thin and the readers who do support them. However, as revenue falls we are forced to concentrate our efforts and time on more lucrative ventures.
For now the NEXOnr local news and information service will continue but we do not know for how long. However, we would ask the readers who value this service to make a special effort to support local businesses and give the web page a chance of to survive.
