CONNECTICUT SUCCESS STORY: SHORE PUBLISHING

By: Lucia Moses 20-somethings Turn Modest Profit With Free Weeklies





In 1996, while many of their college classmates were tailgating and pulling all-night gabfests, longtime pals Ryan Duques and James Warner were busy publishing their first newspaper.



The Source, a monthly broadsheet covering news of the Connecticut shore, had little going for it but pluck. The partners sold ads while at home for winter break. Duques laid it out and printed it at his campus paper at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. They delivered the papers to homes and businesses in Madison by mail.



Backed by the financial assistance of their relatives, the partners started another paper, then another, then another - serving the additional communities of Branford, Clinton, Guilford, Old Saybrook, and Westbrook. The papers have a combined distribution of 57,000 copies at homes and businesses.



Encouraged both by readers and by advertisers, they took the papers from semimonthly to weekly distribution in early August. The parent company, Shore Publishing, managed a modest profit last year.



"We never thought it would get to be this big and this successful," Warner said. He and Duques are each 24 years old.



While daily newspaper circulation is on the decline, weeklies are showing steady growth. In that category, free weeklies have been the fastest-growing, with circulation up 15.5% to 23.1 million since 1996, according to the Editor & Publisher International Year Book.



"I think it's a great success story," said Tom Anischik, vice president of new ventures and production at The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, which prints the Shore papers and runs their news content on its Web site. "They've done an outstanding job in understanding this market and what drives the business."



Duques and Warner are betting that publishing weekly will open doors to more advertisers that want a frequent schedule, such as supermarkets.



How long the market can support two weekly groups remains to be seen. Four of the Journal Register Co.'s weeklies already serve the area. Some advertisers buy ads in both groups' papers. Quality Subaru in Wallingford, for one, believes it's important to buy both groups because they reach the types of people that are likely to buy Subarus, General Manager Julie Angelo said. Other advertisers with tighter ad budgets may have to choose between the two weekly groups.



With combined daily circulation of about 155,000 and nondaily distribution of about 862,000 in Connecticut, Trenton, N.J.-based Journal Register has marketing reach and financial resources that far outstrip Shore Publishing. But Duques and Warner contend they've already taken ads away from the newspaper giant. "It's kind of funny that JRC is getting beat by a little guy," Warner said.



New Haven Register Publisher John L. Shields, who is responsible for the Journal Register weeklies that overlap with Shore Publishing, wouldn't say if his papers have lost ads to the newcomers - but scoffed at the idea that they could be a threat. He said his papers, which claim a paid circulation of 32,000, are financially sound and better editorial products.



"We have solid relationships with the communities along the shoreline," said the Register's Shields, who added, "We have loyal advertisers who have been around many years."



Duques and Warner are having too much fun to worry. They take pride in being independent, local owners - and in their relaxed corporate structure. They throw pizza parties to motivate their 17 full- and part-time employees, and when the company made its sales goal in the latest quarter, the staff celebrated by going to an amusement park.



But when it comes to doing business, Duques and Warner, who are younger than most of their newspaper company's staffers, don't clown around. While they're gaining experience in the business - and respect in their regional advertising community - they realize that their young ages continue to raise eyebrows.



So much so, Duques said, "We still get some interesting looks when people come in and they think I'm the publisher's son."






Lucia Moses (lmoses@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor covering business for E&P.







Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.