The local growth focus of each of Issue Media Group's sites is what makes it possible to simultaneously bootstrap advertising and readership.
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In this segment, Paul Schutt gives an extremely sophisticated description of Issue Media Group's advertising model and how it relates to growth in readership (download the 9 minute iPod compatible video, 46MB). Issue Media Group uses two advertising channels: (1) Local advertisers with large spends; (2) Algorithmic advertising (Google Adsense) for smaller advertisers. Large advertisers may precommit to yearly spends in excess of $10k, and it's economical for Issue Media Group to devote the necessary resources to cultivate them. Smaller local advertisers might not be willing to spend more than $50. In that case, routing them through Google Adsense is the more cost effective alternative.
Issue Media Group's focus on local growth makes it effective at both drawing advertisers and attracting readers. Fifty-two percent of its readership comes from Google search. These readers are looking for the topics it has targeted and around which it has created mini-sites. Advertisers want sites with high traffic that focus on topics relevant to their business. As presented on the Internet, the local growth focus of each of Issue Media Group's sites is what makes it possible to simultaneously bootstrap advertising and readership.
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