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The Arlington Gazette was a local newspaper with a distribution of 4,000 subscribers from around the Arlington, Texas area. Today, Arlington boasts a population of approximately 380,000 people. It is the seventh largest city in Texas and the 49th largest city in the United States.
A woman by the name of Jodi Ryan started her home based career of solely creating, editing, and running a local newspaper. The Woman's Garden interviewed Mrs. Ryan to get a deeper understanding of what it takes to start this type of home business.
The first thing we wanted to find out was, "how did you find so many subscribers?" Mrs. Ryan used a common marketing technique of allowing readers to get a free sample of the newspaper. "(I) sent free copies for several months with a coupon / subscription form." She then sent out a final copy saying, "this is your last copy, subscribe now!" Obviously there is investment involved, and for Mrs. Ryan, this proved to be an excellent way to get readers hooked on her writing.
Other methods of finding subscribers can include using the Internet for bulk email advertising, finding friends and family that are willing to hand your newspaper to their friends and acquaintances, or even hiring a telemarketing company to make local calls advertising the newspaper's specialties.
"What made your newspaper special in comparison to other local papers?" Mrs. Ryan believed it was the articles and "it was very personal." People like to read about local events in their neighborhood and get a personal perspective. Reading a larger, daily distribution paper can keep a reader up to date on current events around the world, but they lack the personal touch a writer can add to events held down the street.
Mrs. Ryan had other people also writing articles. Knowing people with a great sense of humor, or a deeper understanding of current politics can prove to be beneficial. There isn't necessarily a need to pay writers for their work, many times mentioning their home business in the writer's biography is enough payment. Free advertising is hard to come by, therefore you may find many willing people to help brainstorm on new topics and stories.
It takes many different skills for a newspaper to become successful. Among them, not only is writing skill, but also sales, accounting, design, layout, editing, and relating to people. Mrs. Ryan also received volunteer help from friends and family to help fold, sort, sticker and bag the newspapers for mailing. This is a time intensive task, and a large investment if employing the services of a copy shop.
Time is also a big factor in the newspaper business. Mrs. Ryan indicated that 60% of her time was spent on writing, 35% was spent finding advertisers, and 5% was spent finding subscribers. She found that it took between 50 and 70 hours each week to run her monthly newspaper.
The Woman's Garden asked Mrs. Ryan, "if you had the chance to do it all over again, what would you have changed?" Her reply was not surprising at all, "I would have hired a sales person for ads." Sales are a very important factor in any business. For Mrs. Ryan, finding local merchants, getting advertising commitment, and finally collecting money was time consuming.
"If you had the chance to do it all over again, would you?" Mrs. Ryan believes she would. "(The Arlington Gazette) was part of my identity. I became the 'Gazette Woman.' I was able to attend events and do things I wouldn't otherwise have been invited to do. I met many very special people."
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