Large advertising platforms are extraordinarily efficient at processing transactions. An advertiser selects an objective, audience, budget and format; software handles the delivery. That scale is valuable, but the relationship is largely defined by the system.
An independent publisher can offer something different: a person who understands the community, learns the advertiser’s business, recommends an idea, revises it and remains available after the campaign begins. The advertiser does not simply buy inventory. The advertiser gains a local marketing partner.
Broadstreet builds advertising-management and sales technology specifically for independent news, magazine and B2B publishers. Its tools help publishers create, deliver and report on direct-sold digital campaigns, but Broadstreet founder Kenny Katzgrau’s larger philosophy is that technology should strengthen—not replace—the publisher’s human advantage.
Start with questions, not inventory
Jacobs is the owner and publisher of Adams Street Publishing Co., whose roots reach back 34 years to Toledo Parent News. The company later added Toledo City Paper, publications serving families in Ann Arbor and Findlay, and Mature Living News. Its advertisers are overwhelmingly locally owned businesses: restaurants, bars, retailers, schools, pediatricians, dentists, salons and other organizations woven into daily community life.
That local concentration shapes the sales process. Jacobs does not want a representative to begin by reciting products. She wants the salesperson to ask what advertising the business is already doing, what the owner likes about it, what is not working and what outcome matters most.
The approach requires patience and curiosity. It also requires salespeople who see the advertiser as more than an account. “This is a small community,” Jacobs said. “We deal with zero chains.” Her team encounters these owners outside the sales call because they eat in their restaurants, shop in their stores and participate in the same community.
That proximity produces knowledge no targeting dashboard can supply. A local salesperson can understand why a seasonal program matters, recognize what offer will resonate and suggest an idea the owner may be too busy—or too close to the business—to see.
Creative service makes the partnership tangible
Jacobs began her career as a graphic designer, and Adams Street still maintains an in-house design team. That creative capacity is part of the service. When an advertiser does not know what it wants, the team can start from scratch, develop an eye-catching concept and help the business communicate more clearly.
Broadstreet helps Adams Street move that process faster. Magic Spec can assemble a customized sample ad from content on a prospect’s website or social pages, eliminating the need to gather every logo, photograph and line of copy manually. The publisher can then preview the ad on its own website so the advertiser sees something that looks live.
For one ear, nose and throat physician, Jacobs presented Broadstreet’s Amazing Cube, a rotating format that can display six images. The prospect liked the motion and visual possibilities. Adams Street has also used the format for the Area Office on Aging’s seasonal heating and air-conditioning programs, while an auto dealer has used a large billboard-style execution.
The crucial moment often comes when the advertiser begins revising the idea. After receiving one mockup, a client responded that it loved the concept but wanted a different logo and slightly different wording. That response changed the conversation. The advertiser was no longer deciding whether an abstract product sounded interesting; it was collaborating with the publisher to make the campaign its own.
The relationship continues after the sale
Partnership does not end when the order is signed. A publisher can refresh creative, change the offer, explain the results and respond when the advertiser says, “I’m not sure this is working.” Jacobs said Adams Street’s designers often provide the outside perspective a small-business owner needs, especially when the owner is too close to the message.
The reporting conversation matters as well. Jacobs said showing impressions and clicks has helped her team demonstrate what ran and what happened. The numbers are not delivered as the final word from a distant dashboard; they become part of a conversation about what the advertiser should try next.
This is where local publishers can distinguish themselves from companies built primarily for self-service scale. They can answer the phone. They can explain the campaign. They can celebrate a success, acknowledge a disappointment and modify the plan. Over time, that responsiveness turns a media buy into a working relationship.
Katzgrau’s test: Would the publisher buy it?
For Katzgrau, technology earns its place when it helps a local salesperson bring a stronger idea to the advertiser—not when it pushes the relationship aside. Broadstreet’s formats, sales tools and reporting are designed to remove production friction and give the publisher more room to listen, create and respond.
“If I’m going to sell, it has to be something that I would buy if I were them,” Katzgrau told E&P. That standard shifts the discussion away from filling inventory and toward delivering something the publisher can recommend with confidence. The software may make the work faster, but the local publisher remains accountable for whether the idea serves the business.
Broadstreet began with a relationship problem
The same principle is embedded in Broadstreet’s origin. RedBank Green publisher John Ward was frustrated by advertiser churn, and one longtime local butcher was considering canceling after years of running static digital ads. Ward did not treat that frustration as the end of the account. He listened and asked Katzgrau, then the publication’s webmaster, whether they could turn the advertiser’s frequently updated social posts into a more dynamic website ad.
Katzgrau built a prototype. Ward showed it to the advertiser, who embraced it. The creative could feature changing specials and enough motion to capture attention without asking the business owner to rebuild the message every day. That experiment helped inspire Broadstreet, which now provides publishers with a wide range of formats designed for direct-sold campaigns.
More than a decade later, the advertiser was still working with RedBank Green. The technology mattered, but the lasting result began with a publisher taking an advertiser’s frustration seriously and collaborating on a better answer.
Katzgrau has described the idea behind Broadstreet this way: “We make it more attractive for an advertiser to work with a small publisher than it is to work with Google or Facebook.” Relationships are a large part of that answer. Software can make the publisher faster and more capable; the publisher still supplies the listening, judgment and accountability.
Local knowledge is more than a targeting claim
Other publishers interviewed during E&P’s Broadstreet series have described the same advantage. Uriah Kiser, founder and publisher of Potomac Local News, said his sales results improved when he stopped leading with his publication’s accomplishments and began applying the listening skills he had developed as a journalist. Once he focused on the business owner’s story, he could create campaigns around the advertiser instead of trying to fit the advertiser into a predetermined product.
Community Impact CEO John Garrett explained that local advertising also signals participation in the community. Readers use a trusted local publication to discover restaurants, dentists and other businesses. Appearing there can tell the audience that the advertiser is present, successful and invested locally. A publisher can help the business communicate that story in ways a fleeting automated impression may not.
These publishers are not attempting to replicate the scale of Google or Meta. They are using an advantage that scale makes difficult: one person learning one business well enough to recommend something useful—and remaining involved long enough to improve it.
Daybreak can open the conversation
As E&P reported earlier, Broadstreet’s free Daybreak tool helps publishers identify potential advertisers already visiting their websites. A business owner can raise a hand and request information without first receiving a cold call.
Daybreak can create the introduction, but it cannot replace what happens next. The publisher must respond, ask questions, understand the goal and recommend the right mix of print, digital, email, sponsored content or high-impact creative. Technology finds the opportunity. The publisher turns it into a relationship.
Make partnership part of the product
Publishers sometimes describe their competitive advantages in terms of audience size, geography or trusted content. Those strengths matter, but Jacobs’ experience suggests that service itself should be part of the value proposition.
Tell advertisers what happens after they buy. Explain who will help shape the message, how quickly creative can change, how results will be reviewed and whom they can call when they have a question. Then deliver that attention consistently. The goal is not simply to close the next campaign. It is to become the local marketing resource the business does not want to lose.
A large platform can process an enormous number of transactions. An independent publisher can know the owner, understand the community and care whether the campaign succeeds. That relationship is not a consolation prize for lacking scale. It is a product worth selling.
What we are exploring next
The next installment will examine naturally targeted audiences. Readers choose a local or niche publication because they already care about its community, subject or identity. We will explore how that intentional audience differs from targeting inferred by an algorithm—and how publishers can make that distinction valuable to advertisers.
About Broadstreet and Magic Spec
Broadstreet provides technology that helps independent publishers create, manage and report on digital advertising.
Magic Spec turns a business website, social-media page or content URL into a customized sample ad using available branding, imagery and messaging. Publishers can use it in prospecting and presentations—turning “imagine what we could build” into “here is what your campaign could look like.”
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