Could Your Area Support Another Local Newspaper-spun1

Today, each and every large city has at the very least one key day-to-day newspaper, and a lot of have several papers, like specialized company news, senior citizen news, shoppers guides, advertising sheets, and so forth. A number of these papers are published weekly and other individuals may possibly come out each other week, or each month. But in all these methods news and info, and a lot of marketing, goes out for the public. Relatively than hurting regional newspaper distribution, the web has really enhanced and usually elevated it. I could live in Sacramento, California, for instance, but I can jump on the net and catch some of the local news in Portland, Maine by method of the local newspapers. I can even subscribe over the Net in just several minutes. Such public presence helps make every single newspaper obtainable to the total globe. The outcome of such exposure is often a considerably wider audience, and more subscriptions. The Need in your town More than probably, your area currently has a minimum of one particular everyday paper primarily based in a nearby city, too as other publications, this kind of because the Wall Street Journal and USA Right now. I'm positive you will find also true estate guides, shoppers, organization news, free of charge papers that target farm or city readers, and also other nearby or regional publications. You could wonder if there is certainly really area, or even a require for but another newspaper. Are Neighborhood Companies & Readers Being Served? You want to know the answer to the above question before you go very far in trying to develop a newspaper or other neighborhood publication. You want to have an accurate understanding of who you will serve, how you will serve them (what can you offer that no 1 else is offering), and why. You should be fully aware of other publications in your market area and what they are doing. Take the time to do a little research. Drive around and collect a single each of each and every newspaper, shopping guide or trading post, true estate guide, and free of charge magazine publication you can find. draw manga. Spend a couple of days looking them over. Go through each publication over once. Take note with the advertising, the news offered, the features (comics, puzzles, tidbits) offered. Ask yourself how well the people you know are being represented by these publications. How effectively are the small and medium sized corporations in your area publicized? The second step within your research is to go out and visit with local enterprise people. Visit briefly with barbershops, pet stores, cafes, repair shops, appliance stores, tax services, attorneys, clothing stores -- all kinds of organizations. Stop in and ask business owners and managers about their advertising methods, their needs for new sales and new customers. Ask them how a publication might better serve the community and marketplace. Next, go through the phone book's Yellow Pages for your location. Take a look at each and every company category in the book. Pay special attention to the companies that do not advertise in the phone book. Go back through your collection of newspapers and guides and see if you can find ads for these companies. Make a list of the organization for which you can find no ads at all. Give them a call, and ask them how they promote their organizations and why. You're Looking for two things: 1. Are the existing nearby publications truly serving your spot? Is there a workable and effective way for most small and medium-sized companies in your area to get the word out about their products and services? 2. Are most from the small and medium-sized organization owners in your area really aware with the opportunities open to them for advertising? Do they understand the importance of consistent and effective advertising? Do they have realistic expectations? As you develop a clearer picture of your spot and how nicely the regional people and the businesses that serve them are being represented by the nearby printed media.

file:///L|/PDF/Could_Your_Area_Support_Another_Local_Newspaper-spun1.html[1/11/2012 6:52:59 PM]

Could Your Area Support Another Local Newspaper-spun1

Demographic Information Yet another step I would encourage is to check out the specific demographics of your region. Always take such data with the proverbial grain of salt. But you could possibly be surprised to learn some of the facts about who lives around you. You can find such data on the web, at sites like CensusScope: http://www.censusscope.org/ U.S. Government (population, enterprise info, etc.): http://www.census.gov/ Free of charge Demographics PDF file download: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf You can find more sources by doing a Google search, typing in the word "demographic" and the name of your city, county or state. When looking more than demographic information, note the numbers of youth, elderly, working-age adults, birth rates (new or expanding families), households, companies (and what kinds), and other features of the spot that influence the neighborhood interests and needs of potential readers. The much more you know about all the people you serve, the better prepared you are to develop a publication that truly serves the people. Going Door to Door Even so, you will get a better "feel" for the people who read the paper by getting out and talking to your neighbors. Why not visit some people in several of the nearby neighborhoods? Interview some folks on the street. Talk to a couple of local police officers, chat with a pawnshop owner, the owner of a nearby bar, a few with the pastors, an officer of a nearby bank, a store keeper. Ask their opinions with the area, the people they serve each day, what the greatest needs are, and what they think might help the community the most. Get some feedback from children, teens, and some working moms and dads. All of this may sound like a lot of homework. But it's the very kind of work you will be doing if you start up a nearby newspaper. And you cannot imagine how significantly you will gain from this kind of activity. In a handful of days, you will know the community like you have never known it before. And you'll also be better prepared to decide whether or not there exists genuinely a place for a new paper in your town. Practical Applications in the Data Buy yourself a spiral bound notebook and write down the main things you learn from the above research. List the corporations you want to give special attention to, the groups of potential readers you especially want to target. Write down the primary goals of your newspaper of other publication. What do you want to accomplish besides making a living? Are there large gaps in the coverage and nearby representation offered by other publications? Can you see a way of marketing/selling your paper to advertisers that will help them to see the immediate benefit to advertising with you? With some blank sheets of typewriter paper, layout some page ideas for your publication. Sketch out some headlines, some ideas for main photos, some good ideas for ads, and the kinds of ads you want to run. Build a mock-up of your paper. How many pages will it have (think is sets of 4 and 8, since the printer will think this way). A 16 or 20 page paper is really a great size for several small weeklies to start with. That gives you space to fill with details and ads, without giving you a huge mountain to climb. As you work on ideas, keep in mind the segment in the population, and the specific corporations you want to center your attention on. Build a newspaper that appeals towards the readers and advertisers you want to attract.

file:///L|/PDF/Could_Your_Area_Support_Another_Local_Newspaper-spun1.html[1/11/2012 6:52:59 PM]

Could Your Area Support Another Local Newspaper-spun1

If you're like me, you'll also be going through the numbers, with a calculator and notepad, more than and above and more than. Spend all the time you want (and require) playing with numbers before you start trying to sell the first issue. How numerous households are in your area (demographics)? How several of those do you plan to reach? How a lot will postage cost for the number of papers you want to direct-mail to homes, businesses, or p.o. boxes? Get to know your post office staff. Find out about Standard (used to be called Bulk) rates, route saturation mailings, and keep researching until you get the lowest possible rates for your paper. Finally Get quotes on each configuration of printing your paper. Find out about 4-color process, spot color, black ink only (much more about this) and combinations of those, which pages will be color and which will be black ink only (if any). Adjust all your own rates according to this data. And remember that the market you choose to reach will determine significantly about your use of color and other options. To learn far more about starting your own neighborhood newspaper, visit http://www.newspaper-info.com

file:///L|/PDF/Could_Your_Area_Support_Another_Local_Newspaper-spun1.html[1/11/2012 6:52:59 PM]