Issue Media Group

At this point, Issue Media Group has opened seven markets in the past 2 years, and is looking to open another 6–10 in the next year.

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Filed under: Defining New Markets | Detroit, MI | Globalization | Issue Media Group | Paul Schutt | Publishing | Twelve Month Goals

Recently, a friend on the West Coast indicated to Paul Schutt that he thought Issue Media Group was in the business of creating alternative narratives for the locations where it published. In this Final segment (download 6 minute iPod compatible video, 30MB), Paul considers the sorts of locations Issue Media Group might choose to narrate and considers how to manage growth over the next year.

At this point, Issue Media Group has opened seven markets in the past 2 years, and is looking to open another 6–10 in the next year. He feels they have figured out the product. The question is how to meet the demands of growth, including:

• Different regulatory environments in the multiple locations where it is expanding.
• Different economic environments. To date, Issue Media Group has focused on areas that are doing less well economically.
• The need to maintain quality and keep down overheads in an increasingly distributed operating environment.

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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Filed under: Defining New Markets | Detroit, MI | Issue Media Group | Paul Schutt | Publishing | Web 2.0

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.

Centralization allows Paul Schutt to exercise editorial control and enhance Issue Media Group's web visibility.

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Filed under: Defining New Markets | Detroit, MI | Issue Media Group | Managing Growth | Paul Schutt | Publishing | Web 2.0

As Paul Schutt describes in this segment (download 4 minute iPod compatible video, 19MB), there are over 130 people involved in publishing Issue Media Group's weekly regional news magazines. Although all reporting is local, many aspects of production are centralized. This centralization assures quality and helps maintain the editorial focus on growth. Central functions include:

• The executive editor
• The executive photo editor
• The executive film editor
• The production editor
• All back office functions

An additional benefit of centralization, particularly relevant to Internet publishing, is Issue Media Group's use of tagging to create mini sites around neighborhoods. Essentially, articles with particular tags are republished all together. In this way, a body of information on a topic can accumulate all in place, making an attractive target for search engines. Coherent tagging structures are only possible with a centralized editing function.

Issue Media Group produces all of its content locally and can have 7 to 8 new markets under development at once.

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Filed under: Detroit, MI | Issue Media Group | Managing Growth | Paul Schutt | Publishing

Issue Media Group can have 7 or 8 markets under development at once (download 9 and a half minute iPod compatible video, 50MB). Typically, Issue Media Group waits until it has pre-sold a year's worth of sponsorship in a market before it moves in. It discovers opportunities from the response it receives at economic development conferences where it presents. Sponsors include stakeholders in the local economy like institutions of higher education, banks, health care providers, and real estate.

In order to produce content for a given market, Issue Media Group contracts 3 editors and 10 to 15 stringers (freelance writers). The managing editor oversees content production. The development editor sniffs out new stories in economic development. The jobs editor maintains a finger on the pulse of hiring. The stringers act as role players, providing content in their areas of expertise, for instance economics. Finally, Issue Media Group does not limit itself to to text content but also produces a highly visual publication with images and video.