A new, or not so new, weekly newspaper hits Wichita streets Thursday. F5 returns after a six year hiatus under the direction of founder Mike Marlett.
Marlett says he decided to start the paper back up again after constantly hearing from people that missed it.
“I met some young, successful guys with their own businesses and their own money to invest,” he says. “They had brand loyalty and they wanted it back.
Marlett says there has been a void in the Wichita community since F5 stopped publication in 2007. He says the paper did a great job of building bridges between niche communities and connected Wichitans to “cool cultural things” that were happening.
“There is a point when you need to fill that void, and the easiest thing to do was start F5,” says Marlett.
Marlett is starting a print publication at a time when more and more people are getting their news and information online, but he says it is a great marketing tool.
“We put [the papers] in those same places that we are writing about,” he says.
“Every time I would walk into a place, if there were a bunch of copies available, there were a bunch of people reading them.”
Marlett says when someone’s nose is stuck in a phone, no one knows what you are reading. People will know when someone is reading F5, he says, then maybe pick one up themselves.
They will also be publishing stories to their website and engaging the community through social media.
F5 will be available for free every Thursday at 300 locations across Wichita.
They are having a launch party Friday at 7 p.m. at Fish Haus, 524 S. Commerce Street.
