{"id":215205,"date":"2021-07-26T11:42:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T15:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/?p=215205"},"modified":"2022-02-03T10:19:21","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T14:19:21","slug":"a-former-newspaper-editor-launched-a-news-startup-in-a-town-of-5000-people-its-going-better-than-even-he-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/a-former-newspaper-editor-launched-a-news-startup-in-a-town-of-5000-people-its-going-better-than-even-he-expected\/","title":{"rendered":"A former newspaper editor launched a news startup in a town of 5,000 people. It\u2019s going better than even he expected."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UPDATE: <\/strong>It’s been six months since we published this Q&A with Philomath News founder Brad Fuqua, so we decided to check in with Brad and see how things are going. Here’s what he told us<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Lee Enterprises shut down The Philomath Express<\/a> last year, former editor Brad Fuqua decided to launch something new to serve his community in rural Oregon, population 5,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight months later, Philomath News<\/a> is ahead of its first-year revenue targets, and Brad is settling into his new do-everything role as reporter, editor, publisher, salesperson, and marketing lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This type of bootstrapped \u201csolopreneurship\u201d is common among LION members<\/a>, especially in rural communities, so I asked Brad about what he\u2019s learned about running the editorial and<\/em> business side of a news operation and building an audience in a small town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some highlights from our Ask Me Anything conversation<\/a> in the News Entrepreneur Community Slack group<\/a>, edited for brevity and clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your revenue goals for year 1 and beyond, and how did you set those targets?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My revenue goal for year 1 has always been to try to hit $30,000, which would put me in the neighborhood of net pay from the job where I had been laid off. I\u2019m in a financial situation where my wife passed me a long time ago on the salary scale (she used to work for the same newspaper as a reporter; she quit and thankfully got into another line of work with a more predictable future).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So $30,000 was the goal. But I also had a more realistic, conservative number in mind that ranged from $14,000 to $18,000. I\u2019ve already surpassed those numbers. When my accountant asked for an estimate on what I thought we\u2019d make this year, I came up with $28,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m in the general vicinity on revenue, and I feel that I could do much, much better if I get to the point of spending more time on this end of the business. Deep down, I\u2019m actually surprised at how much I\u2019ve brought in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much time are<\/em> you spending on the business side versus the journalism and editorial? Getting that balance right is often a challenge for founders.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a huge challenge. I tried to steal an idea from another news site to set aside \u201cMoney Monday\u201d \u2014 a time when I put news writing aside and focus on advertising sales, memberships, bookkeeping, etc. But it\u2019s not going so well. I think I\u2019m going to change it to Wednesdays because that seems to be my slowest day of the week. I\u2019m currently spending less than 10% of my time on this part of the work, so obviously I need to do better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does your revenue break down percentage-wise between memberships and advertising? Do you have any other revenue streams?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Memberships and advertising are the only two revenue streams at this time. I have other ideas, but I haven\u2019t had the time to develop them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d say it\u2019s been about 75% memberships and 25% advertising. And that\u2019s with hardly any effort at all put into advertising sales. I keep thinking this is going to be the week that I put some time into it, yet I haven\u2019t been able to figure out how to fit it into my schedule. I realize it\u2019s important and I\u2019ve actually had a fair number of inquiries, but all I\u2019ve really done is send those folks ad options, rates and recommendations for size and placement. So while the memberships have done better than expected, I\u2019m only scratching the surface on advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not the fun part of the job \u2014 yes, I\u2019m a career newsman, and in most places we hardly ever talked to advertising reps on the other side of the building. It\u2019s uncomfortable for me to wear this hat, but I realize that it\u2019s something I\u2019ll need to master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How have you navigated your discomfort with advertising as someone who <\/strong>entered journalism in the days of \u201cfirewalls<\/a>\u201d between editorial and advertising? And how do you talk about editorial independence with potential advertisers?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Navigating through it has been a challenge\u2026 but it\u2019s how I need to approach things to make this news site sustainable. I do bring editorial independence up on occasion when the conversation goes in that direction, and I haven\u2019t seen any issues with potential advertisers on that front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the biggest learning curve you\u2019ve gone through when it comes to running a business, as opposed to focusing entirely on journalism?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Advertising sales is a given here, but also some of the technical knowledge that you need to keep a website running smoothly. I invested in a web host that\u2019s a little pricier than others (WP Engine<\/a>) with the hope that they\u2019ll be able to help me keep things in order, but I\u2019m operating on a shoestring budget, so something like Web Publisher Pro is just way beyond my current budget and not realistic at my revenue level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to build and design the website from scratch (using WordPress with ThemeForest\u2019s Newspaper X), and I\u2019ve done the same with my newsletter (using MailChimp), which goes out twice per week. I started out at three times per week but I backed off when I reorganized the number of hours I had been working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looping back to your revenue model, how did you come up with your membership tiers and set prices for them? And what did it take to get <\/strong>so many members<\/strong><\/a> on board right out of the gate?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the membership tiers, I brought up LION\u2019s member list<\/a> that had links to each website and went through many of them to get an idea of the going rate. I tinkered with the membership tiers a lot, went back and forth, had second thoughts, had four options at one point and finally settled on the three tiers<\/a> I\u2019m offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of it came down to me knowing these people, knowing the community, and knowing how much they care about news. I knew I\u2019d be able to get my share of $150\/year and $350\/year memberships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as getting so many members out of the gate, that in my mind comes down to relationships. I was editor of the weekly printed paper here for five years and have gotten to know so many people. I get out in the community, cover a lot of sports (a big deal in a town this size) and gave presentations to the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Lee Enterprises shut down the Philomath paper and fired me, it upset a lot of people, from the city manager to the soccer moms. People really appreciated the job I did with that weekly paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I didn\u2019t launch the Philomath News until three months after the print newspaper shut down. I did that on purpose, in a way, to provide an example of what it\u2019s like to no longer have news in your community, to perhaps create a hunger in them for it to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a month before the launch, I put out a few teasers on Facebook and tried to get people excited about it. I had 100 newsletter subscribers before I even sent any out. Then I launched and worked the digital approach to getting memberships as hard as possible. I haven\u2019t been able to get out in the community much with COVID, so I had to work it hard digitally. I had my core group of supporters and they informed others of my news site and it just continued to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love that story. It reminds me a lot of how Block Club Chicago was built from the ashes of DNAinfo Chicago.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t stress enough the relationships part of it. Without having those relationships in the community, I doubt that I would try something like this in a town of this size. You have to just get out there and get to know people and let them into your world. People are more understanding than you might think, and I think that\u2019s been a part of why I\u2019ve sold memberships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last question for you: What\u2019s the next step for you from a revenue perspective? Where do you see opportunities for growth?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The obvious opportunity for growth would be in advertising if I could get my act together. I\u2019ve thought about hiring someone on commission, but I keep shying away from that idea. This is a small town, I am<\/em> the Philomath News, and I think they would want to talk to me; I need to keep my face out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, I\u2019m a control freak, it\u2019s hard to give up that responsibility to someone else. And I think there\u2019s plenty of room for more memberships down the road. I\u2019ve only been getting members through social media and folks passing the word around. There are still a lot of people in this town that probably don\u2019t know I\u2019m here. So with the community opening back up post-pandemic, I plan to really get out there and reach people in different ways to bring in more memberships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve tinkered with the idea of partnering with student organizations at the high school and giving them a percentage of memberships they bring in as a fundraiser for them (and me), ideas along those lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other revenue ideas revolve around products that promote Philomath, which I think could be fairly successful here. I\u2019ve also thought about putting a tip jar on stories and am thinking about putting some of our news photos up for sale \u2014 those won\u2019t bring in a lot of revenue, but every bit helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update: How are things going six months later? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our<\/strong> revenue for 2021 came in at $35,182.66, so higher than anticipated<\/strong>. Just yesterday, I surpassed $50,000 since the launch on Nov. 30, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons learned?<\/p>\n\n\n\n