The authors of an in-depth study hope their research spawns more conversations and solutions for pocket-sized publishers nationwide.
Think of the document more like a detailed menu of possibilities rather than a road map to a specific destination.
The 41-page report, “Homegrown Advertising: How small publishers want to build revenue programs that reflect their communities,” examined small local publishers’ revenue strategies and challenges. The study included surveys, focus groups and interviews with publishers, ad experts and academics.
The study’s authors anticipated that technology hurdles would be the primary focus of their work. However, conversations revealed a larger problem with advertising, specifically in sales infrastructure, talent and training.
The findings articulate those challenges while outlining different ways small publishers have found ways to make advertising work. But that also means that tiny publishers won’t find a universal solution that will work in every market.
The publishers that were targeted for research were defined as publications that had fewer than five team members and less than $500,000 in annual revenue. The Tiny News Collective and Rebuild Local News conducted the study, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation funded the research.
“A big emphasis of the report was having these publishers lean into their unique offering to advertisers,” said Madison Karas, one of the report’s authors and the project manager for R&D for the Tiny News Collective. She added that successful publishers could articulate to advertisers their “unique value” in the marketplace, namely the connection the publications had with their audiences that cannot be matched through programmatic or social media advertising.
That may seem intuitive, but new publishers may not have a sales background.
“Publishers, when they’re new to advertising sales, are developing the program and need to get in the rhythm of articulating the unique metrics and numbers of digital advertising, but also how it works and they’re going to be able to provide that value through the advertising campaign,” Karas said.
Many publishers said organizational infrastructure was the biggest gap to close for tiny news operations.
For startups, “the problem lies in readiness and infrastructure to take on the first client,” the report noted. “A lack of readiness or infrastructure can lead to missed opportunities.”
The study provides an advertising program checklist for planning advertising infrastructure. It also includes a software directory for many kinds of advertising platforms.
Entrepreneurs quoted in the study said they left money on the table because they didn’t build out advertising infrastructure quickly enough.
The research found various ways publishers produce revenue, from events and sponsorships to more traditional advertising and various combinations. The study also addressed less traditional forms of advertising revenue. For example, an approach championed by Rebuild Local News: government advertising dollars that are set aside for local news, such as those adopted by New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and California.
The report noted that advertising subsidy programs use nonprofit or economic development funds given to small business applicants to spend on ads with local news outlets.
“We try to write policies that benefit different news organizations,” said Lori Henson, the government advertising policy manager for Rebuild Local News. Henson played a supportive role in the study. “My main job is to get those policies passed at the state level especially — and in large metro areas. … So, a report like the Homegrown Advertising initiative helps us design and advocate for pilot programs to help the very smallest organizations.”
Bob Miller has spent more than 25 years in local newsrooms, including 12 years as an executive editor with Rust Communications. Bob also produces an independent true crime investigative podcast called The Lawless Files.
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