For more than 30 years, Paradise News has been mailed to residents and displayed for visitors to the Florida communities on the Gulf Beaches of Pinellas and increasingly farther inland toward downtown St. Petersburg and its eastern shore. Our amazing website www.paradisenewsfl.com reaches interested readers from around the world.
The mission of the magazine is to educate, entertain and enhance the lives of all who take the time to look at it. Every issue contains a painstakingly updated listing of arts and leisure and events in the Tampa Bay area, as well as articles and ads on real estate, home improvement, health, wellness, pets, dining, entertainment, recreation and more. Starting in March we will have a new veterinarian article from Hometown Veterinary Partners each issue.
So much was lost by so many of us on Sept. 26 and Oct. 9, 2024, when hurricanes Helene and Milton became the first two in over a century to cause widespread flooding in the Tampa Bay area. Since then, we added hurricane recovery to our editorial mission, and we have been sharing what we are learning about FEMA’s rules about rebuilding in a flood plain and how our area can recover from these catastrophic events. We are proud to have been able to publish each month, despite everything mother nature throws our way. We print and distribute 25-30,000 print copies monthly, except for July and September.
Our digital department produces a weekly digital newsletter that is emailed to a growing list of folks who subscribe (for FREE) on our website, where readers can also access copies of Paradise News from the last 10 years at www.issuu.com/ParadiseNewsFL, as well as history stories, advice columns and more. It is amazing how often we hear people say, “We LOVE Paradise News.”
So much was lost last Fall, and we know how comforting it must be to see Paradise News is still publishing. It has not been easy. Some of our treasured hotels and motels and loyal advertisers are still trying to reopen. Others never will be back. We were flooded out of our home and office and have recently moved for the sixth time since the storm. We are now in a downtown St. Pete condo, where we are likely to remain for 6-18 months, until our beach house is ready to move back into.
We appreciate more than you can imagine, our amazing team, our loyal writers who contribute, and the advertisers who pay to bring you your favorite local publication each month. Life in the area is returning to normal, except for those of us living very near the “Gulf of America.” This issue is chock full of fun things to do, so take a look. If you visit our advertisers, please let them know you read about them in Paradise NEWS.