Print ain’t dead: How an ad-man-turned publisher is building a local news empire profitably in Texas
John P. Garrett says he worries he sounds like someone from the early 1990s who predicted there would never be a computer in every home. Garrett’s the Texas publisher of seven neighborhood editions of a monthly newspaper called Community Impact Newspaper. And he’s not looking online to grow his business. The difference between him and the Luddite computer naysayer is that, so far at least, he’s been right. His business is profitable, and he’s expanding. His secret to success: attract local advertisers by giving readers relevant content through targeted distribution. And that content is often focused on the sort of local government coverage that newspaper doomsayers say is at the greatest risk.
Garrett left his job as advertising director at the Austin Business Journal in July 2005 after he was inspired by the toll road coverage, or lack of it, in his local newspaper. North Austin is a fast-growing, suburban part of the city, ripe for development. In 2005, the city of Austin had started massive construction on these roads (“they looked like Stonehenge”), but when Garrett turned to his local newspaper he couldn’t find stories on where they were going, or how North Austin residents might use them. “The local papers were very much [covering] ‘the local chess team has made it to state.’ Not that that stuff’s not relevant, but for most people it just isn’t,” Garrett said. His idea: Take the community feel of a local paper, cover neighborhood news the big papers won’t, and focus on business and development stories relevant to a typical resident.
“We write a lot about local government, local development, city business,” he told me. “In the greater Austin area, there’s probably ten different cities. We’re the only news organization that has a reporter at every city council meeting.”
Garrett started his business out of his house, with a $40,000 loan from a low-interest credit card. He hired an editor and writers to take care of the content side; he’d focus on the business end. He’s paid off the debt and now turns a profit. He employs 63 people, including reporters, editors, designers, managers, and ad sales reps. The staff is broken up into teams by location, including at least one reporter, editor, and sales person per area; larger regions get more resources. Three top editors oversee editorial quality across all eight publications.
Direct mail distribution
Garrett says a smart distribution strategy is at least as important as smart content to his success. When we talked, Garrett noted he was on Twitter at that very moment, engaged in a small tiff with Jeff Jarvis, whom he said argues relevant content is the key. “There is talk about hyperlocal content — buzzword, got it. But there’s not enough talk about the distribution of it. [Jarvis] is saying it’s not about the distribution anymore, it’s about relevant content. I’m saying it’s about both.”
When Garrett was preparing to launch Community Impact, he knew he wanted to use direct mail to distribute his product. He’d create targeted editions of his newspapers, print them on high-quality, stitched and trimmed paper, and mail them to everyone in the area. (You can see a copy of the print edition here.) Why not just toss them in driveways? “The Average Joe really hates that,” he told me, and his business is all about reaching the Average Joe (or Jane). He’s skeptical about online ever becoming his primary distribution outlet. “I hope I’m wrong,” he says, pointing out it is cheaper to publish online than mail content. Garrett points to the Huffington Post, which was still not profitable as of a few months ago, as an example of his problem. “If anyone’s made it, it’s the Huffington Post with 9 million in page views. How in the world is ImpactNews.com going to do it?”
This recipe — relevant content, wide distribution, and local targeting — has turned out to be attractive to local businesses looking to advertise. “We’re winning the local battle and we aren’t the least expensive,” Garrett said. Small ads run $350 to $400 per paper, which he says could buy more than a monthly run in a local paper.
Advertising success
I talked with one of Garrett’s long-time clients, the Austin Regional Clinic, which has locations throughout the Austin area and buys ads in all of the newspaper’s editions every month. Heidi Shalev, marketing communications manager, told me she likes being able to customize ads by community, including a map to the closest location. “We decided it would be better to pull out of the Austin American-Statesman. We can drill down into the niche area community [with Community Impact]. With the Statesman, we can’t speak on a more personal level.” (The Statesman does offer zoned advertising, but in fewer zones and lower distribution in those zones.)
Ken Moncebaiz, owner of K&M Steam Cleaning, a carpet cleaning service in Austin, says about a fourth of his business comes from the full-page ad he buys on the back inside cover of the Community Newspaper editions in his area. Since he started advertising in the paper in 2005, he said his business has doubled from five trucks to ten, and he said Garrett deserves some of that credit. He spends $10,000 a month on the print cover ad and an online ad. In all, he spends $36,000 a month on six or seven forms of advertising, like radio ads, online search ads, and other forms of direct mailing like ValPak. He does about $2.5 million a year in business.
“In Austin, there’s like ten different sub-cities inside of it. That newspaper is so neat because it actually gets to the different subdivision in that area,” Moncebaiz explained. “What our customers love, what they all say is they read the newspaper from cover to cover. ‘It’s free, it tells me all about my area.’ That’s why they love it. The reason I love it is everyone reads it cover to cover. I anchor the inside back cover, no one else is allowed to have it. It’s all mine.”
The original version of this story incorrectly reported the number of employees at Community Impact Newspaper. The correct figure is 63. We regret the error.
I’m a former Impact staffer and a believer in John’s concept. I’m also a professional web producer and have now worked for print, broadcast and online outlets and can easily say that Impact is one of the most optimistic workplaces and a model not to be ignored. In fact I’m shocked they haven’t expanded faster or been ripped off across the nation. That said, I wish an online community site would partner with Community Impact to give a really quality web version of what they offer. I think it could be a steep and expensive educational curve for Impact to make a powerful, interactive community site but if they partnered with an experienced team who knew how to sell and fund it, it could be great. Are you listening to this internet? This could be your opportunity.
I am a former Community Impact staffer and must say, “BEST company I have ever worked for!” In addition to John being a man of his word and awesome employer, he is right on track with his company. The paper has the best content for each area and the distribution gets to everyone. People LOVE Community Impact! No doubt he is successful and his business will continue to grow! If I ever move back to the area, I would highly consider being a part of his team once again!
Great story. Love this idea. As someone who is constantly studying different news business models, I’m adding this to my arsenal of ideas.
One question: Earlier this story said there were 76 employees, but now it says 63. Is that a correction? Could you make it a little more obvious that there was one?
Thanks! Again, excellent article.
While Community Impact certainly appears to be a good paper, albeit littered with ads, I agree with some of what Matthew mentioned earlier. I wish I could remember his exact comment since it now appears to be deleted. Through some business acquaintances, I know of several men who have interviewed for a sales position within the company. All have had previous sales experience and college degrees in the business and marketing fields. However, it seems they have been passed over for the current sales reps that are female, in all probability, a few with little to no previous sales history. However, they appear to be young and attractive. It’s a shame that such an upstanding company has a history of discrimination in hiring practices. Just take a look at their company photo on their website. A picture speaks a thousand words…
Where can I get that shirt? It’s totally bitchin’.
Years ago I worked for a similar group of weekly papers in Chicago, run by Copley Newspapers, that were hyper-local, community-based and very well received in the communities they covered. And they did some really strong community journalism.
A change of ownership brought a new direction, and a new emphasis on cost containment over content, which forced the papers for be far less local. It’s unfortunate, as many of us who worked on those papers still think this is one answer to making money and serving the media needs of our communities.
You can pick up the “Print Ain’t Dead” shirt here: http://bit.ly/baS1aR
Hyper local print ocntent that is relevant to micro-markets & supported (“littered with ads”) by local advertisers and properly distributed to targeted areas is the secret to success in the communications industry.
John Garrett understands what readers and advertisers want and knows how to put it all together. Big conglomerates don’t really get it and will struggle to catch up-and-coming powerhouses like Community Impact Newspapers.
Community newspapers are hot!
Sorry I live in north Austin and I get Impact and it is the first thing that goes in the trash when I get my mail.
Very nice piece on a wonderful, independent community paper group. Papers like Mr. Garrett’s are proof positive that “Print ain’t dead!”
It’s worth noting that Community Impact Newspapers are not exactly a rare bird exhibit in the larger media zoo. It’s easy to get that impression when you have prominent studies like Pew/PEJ’s peek at Baltimore managing to find only 6 papers reporting in that metro — problem is, they missed at least another 11. That’s a heck of an undercount.
The reality: Collectively, free community papers have served nearly every community in America long before the ‘pay to read’ model of dissemination began to erode. And for this industry, ‘hyper-local’ is not the latest buzzword or strategic bandwagon — instead it is their enduring business model.
A great read for journalism and marketing students is Victor Jose’s “The Free Paper in America,” c. 2000, Graphic Press. Bonus, it has a compelling forward by his boyhood friend, Kurt Vonnegut. For those embarking on the daunting task of actually mapping the current state of local media ecosystems, here’s a starting point if you’d like to include the 1,000s of local papers exemplified in this article: http://paperchain.com/associations
As a former Impact employee and somebody who worked closely with Natalie I can assure you that the company she once loved no longer exists. I remember the good times when John Garrett knew every employee by name and cracked jokes with us in the hallways. Then he read a book about William Randolph Hearst – the man who practically
invented yellow journalism to sell newspapers – and starting expanding his empire at great cost to company morale. Suddenly all the things that made it fun to work at Community Impact started disappearing, and once all the perks were gone he started getting rid of employees to save a buck. One girl was fired 12 days before Christmas. One guy was fired for wearing a wrinkled shirt. John even recruited a former colleague to leave a high-paying job to join the Community Impact staff and then fired him 90 days later because the sales numbers weren’t as high as he thought they should be. Based on complaints I hear from current employees its not a very happy place to work at all.
Community Impact is nothing more than a replica of the printed beast it was rebelling against: an aging newspaper with declining revenues where the bottom line is more important than serving the people who read the paper.
I don’t even consider Community Impact a newspaper, it’s more of a community newsletter. The content is so biased with only those companies that advertise with them getting any recognition. I just flip to the back to get the coupons and then in the recycle bin it goes.
I live in Round Rock and receive Impact. I have also had a story published in it from a press release I submitted. I like that it comes to my mailbox and has good content. The ads don’t bother me – that’s how it’s free! Plus, we usually snag a few coupons from it as well, which supports our local businesses.
I guess I dont understand. Newspaper, flyer, circular, does it really matter? As for many of the comments, it is a free service to each of you. If you dont like it, throw it away, recycle it, or give it to someone who does like it. Let me ask exactly, what would make you happy…because free doesnt seem to be the answer. The answer to me is simple. Keep negativity to yourself…if you dont have anything nice to say, dont say anything. As for #11 responder, your comments are completely discredited since you no longer work there…simply a disgruntled x-employee. I like the paper and have nothing negative to say…Thank you for the paper Community Impact!
I live in Round Rock and get excited when the Community Impact comes in the mail, like Christmas every month! Great content,and what I love is that it’s NOT bias. They but big stories and simple local stories, but the success is local! John is right on with that. Obviously, their business is growing in the worst economy ever.
As far as the former employees that are talking smack, as an HR person I would say that it only makes them (the former employee) look bad. No one likes to be let go. Guys use those experiences to walk away learning something from it instead of pointing fingers. Come on, don’t be a negative Nancy! Who would want to work around that?
Glenn was raised right, if you don’t have anything nice to say…..