To find new readers, The Albany Herald in southwest Georgia recently launched three niche publications targeting specific local markets. The free monthly tabloids include Southwest Georgia Health Beat, Southwest Georgia Entertainment Beat and Southwest Georgia Praise, covering health and wellness, entertainment, and religion, respectively.
“After a strong look at southwest Georgia and reviewing the gaps of medical, entertainment and churches, it made sense to create a niche division,” said the paper’s general manager Ken Boler.
In addition to filling a need in the region, Boler said with all of the Herald’s offerings, including SWGA Entertainment Beat, SWGA Health Beat and SWGA Praise, the newspaper will reach a much wider audience.
A recent issue of Southwest Georgia Praise
The paper now has a circulation of 142,000 readers and an additional 338,000 on mobile and 129,000 on albanyherald.com.
Ken Boler, general manager for the Albany Herald
According to Boler, to find print audiences, SWGA Entertainment Beat was distributed to hotels and college campuses while SWGA Praise was added to more than 2,225 churches in the region, and SWGA Health Beat partnered with Mayo Clinic and The American Cancer Society.
Each publication is supported by advertising dollars, and Boler said “It’s important to secure anchor advertisers before rolling the first edition off the press.”
“By month three or four you should see the desired level of advertising growth along with reader interest,” he added.
While the new niche publications have been successful so far, Boler said the greatest challenge is making sure to maintain local and regional content sources.
“Keeping the content and reader interest high is key in the first 90-days as you are cutting the product into new markets,” Boler said. “Having a diverse rule in place for the content is important as well. We aim to produce products which reflect the markets that we serve. SWGA Health Beat, SWGA Entertainment Beat, SWGA Praise needs to service and touch everyone from all walks of like each month.”
If publishers are interested in launching their own niche publications, Boler suggested looking for holes in your market and taking a risk.
In addition to these publications, the Herald plans to launch another southwest Georgia publication by early 2016.
For now, Boler said they’re focused on growing these three publications to their full potential. Currently all content in these publications can be found on the paper’s website. By 2016, SWGA Health, SWGA Entertainment Beat and SWGA Praise will all have matching micro-sites, allowing for more exposure and revenue opportunities.
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