Today marks a historic date, as today is the day that we separated the content of the Edwardsburg Argus and Cassopolis Vigilant. As readers of those papers may know, our cover and sports packages were different but the guts of the newspapers have been identical. This is all part of our ongoing effort to make all of our newspapers ultra local and relevant to you.

Still we continue to need your help, but we have made it much easier with a new photo gallery product on our leaderpub.com so you can easily submit photo galleries with descriptions of local events in your community. As much as we would like to do, we just don’t have the staff nor are we aware of all of the numerous happenings going on in Leaderland. If you would like to participate just go online or feel free to contact me directly. Your news is important to us.

News tips are always welcome. It was a news tip from a reader that helped us produce the recent story about Miss Niles being relieved of duties. Another reader tipped us off to an open house celebrating former Pokagon food market owner Opal Vandenburg’s 90th birthday. These interesting stories would not have happened hadyou not contacted us.

It is VIP time in Leaderland!

This week the members of our sales team have been spending their time in the dungeon of the Leader Publications headquarters in the heart of Niles. They are making appointments with businesses that want to learn what and how to get their messages to you their customers.

Candi Davis, our VIP belle from the South, is here on her never-ending world tour.

She travels the country helping businesses understand the most efficient way to get their messages to you the shopper.

You may ask how selling good advertising campaigns helps you? First, if done correctly, you get informed of the services and values of our local businesses. You check out the ads in the Leader products and buy local products that fill a need or just make you happy.

And when you do, be sure you tell them you saw it in a Leader product.

When you buy local, you are improving the economy, which builds better community. More local taxes means more revenue will go to our local governments and schools. When you shop local, you help improve our services and education systems. When you shop local, you help to create and maintain jobs in our community for yourself, your friends, relatives and neighbors. More and better paying jobs equates to more income to reinvest in our community.

When you shop local, you help make businesses vibrant. Vibrant businesses have more money to advertise with Leader Publications. More advertising allows us to reinvest in our people for improved products for you and, in turn, add more money to the community. Together, we will all grow.

Michael Bennett can be reached at michael.bennett@leaderpub.com or (269) 687-7700.