Shane and Jolene Goodman are the founders, owners, and managers of Big Green Umbrella Media – and they’re married. They began their presentation by briefly describing some of the difficulties in the overall newspaper business today. Primarily that the paid subscription model is floundering and that the death of newspapers is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They went on to describe their business and how it navigates these difficulties.
Big Green Umbrella was established in 2003 as Greater Des Moines Publishing. The operation struggled for a time, until they purchased CityView. This publication gave them the springboard from which their portfolio of publications has grown. They current produce the following list of non-subscription, local publications:
· CityView – circulation of ~30,000/mo.
· Iowa Living Magazines (started in 2007) serving 21 Central Iowa Communities – circulation of ~160,000/mo.
· Des Moines Parent – circulation of ~10,000/mo.
· Business Journal – circulation of ~7,00/mo.
· Johnston Adviser – a new offering that serves as a community newsletter, currently distributed in three zones · Big Green Umbrella also does its own distribution and provides distribution services for several other publications in the region. Maintain control of distribution is a key to success in this business.
Shane then described thirteen points that guide their business strategy.
1. Print is NOT dead. Quit listening to the daily papers. It’s their model that’s broken.
2. Content is king. Papers will be read if that’s where people can find the content they want.
3. Distribution management is a must.
4. Free vs. Paid – Seems that only Netflix is successful at a paid subscription model anymore.
5. Readers want digital content, but they don’t want ads. So they find ways to block ads.
6. Print advertising works.
7. Social media CAN be a good complement.
8. Niche content will succeed.
9. Mix of digital and print with a strong focus on digital seems to be the future, but how to make digital ads acceptable? 10. Audited circulation provides advertisers with real, useful data. Not available for digital media due to robots. So…
11. You can’t bankroll the future on digital.