As you might have seen on last Friday’s front page, The Farmville Herald’s newspaper family grew recently when we welcomed The Charlotte Gazette and The Kenbridge Victoria Dispatch to our ranks.

The expansion will have little immediate effect on readers of the Herald, the Gazette or the Dispatch. Each newspaper will continue to publish and provide news and information of interest to the communities it serves: Charlotte County for the Gazette; Lunenburg County for the Dispatch; and Prince Edward, Buckingham and Cumberland counties for the Herald. Content will overlap only when the topic is of interest to all of those communities.

Over time, the efficiencies gained from pooling the resources of three publications will result in improved and expanded content in each. We appreciate the confidence placed in us by the Tucker family, longtime owners of the Gazette and Dispatch, and look forward to serving readers in two more counties.

The immediate, positive impact is on Farmville Newsmedia’s capacity to serve the marketing needs of area businesses. An advertisement purchased with our company will now reach more than 60 percent of adults in five counties — an audience unmatched by any other print publication, broadcast or digital medium.

That’s the readership of our printed products alone. We’re equally excited about last month’s launch of our new online marketing division, 434 Digital, a full-service provider of online marketing solutions — from banner ads on our own websites to social media management, online visibility, website design and reputation management.

In short, we can put an area business’ marketing message in front of any consumer anywhere who is in the market for that merchant’s goods or services. And we’re eager to do so — at affordable rates that will net the merchant an outstanding return on investment.

Our success in serving the marketing needs of businesses, both in print and online, will translate directly to better local news coverage in all five counties.

We appreciate our advertisers, our readers, and the many people who are both. You are our lifeblood.

STEVE STEWART is publisher of The Farmville Herald. His email address is steve.stewart@farmvilleherald.com.