Starting a Local News Website with Advertising Space, What Should I Consider?

Blogging Basics
1

Hello…I’m looking to create a local news website that sells advertising space to local businesses. I plan to use WordPress to build the site and will accept press releases and tips from the community.

I want to do this as a side gig. There’s someone doing something similar in a nearby town, but my town (which is bigger) only has online newspapers with paywalls run by companies in other states.

I know I’ll need website hosting, bookkeeping for taxes, and a better camera than my iPhone. What other things should I consider before starting this project?

2

I used to do this. I started Menifee 24/7 to cover Menifee, CA, in 2004. To succeed, you need to get to know important people in your town by meeting them in person. Attend city council meetings, school board meetings, chamber of commerce events, and any public gatherings. Report on these events and hand out business cards. It will take a lot of effort, but if you build a positive reputation and a strong Facebook following, you can get local businesses to buy ads from you. By 2012, I was making enough from ad sales to hire a few writers, and then I decided to sell the publication to one of my writers, who still runs it today.

3

That’s awesome! Thanks for the advice! Did you register as a business with the city/county/state?

4

Yes, I had incorporated as an Inc. But that was overkill, an LLC is enough.

5

I don’t want to discourage you, but there’s a reason many general news sites are struggling. Most people are more interested in specific niches now. I’ve been running a site for the last four months, publishing 2-4 stories a day for a town of 13,000. I get 50-100 hits a day, and I think about 80% of that might be bots based on the page clicks versus actual visits. I post snippets of info and link back to my blog on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook isn’t working well for me, with only about 14 engagements a month, and Twitter is hard to measure since many views seem to be from bots, usually around 10-20 per post.

I’m still going to keep it up for a while, but I honestly don’t see it going anywhere. When I ask myself who I know that uses a general news website, the answer is “no one.” That doesn’t mean you can’t succeed, but just keep your expectations realistic. I haven’t even approached any businesses yet because my numbers are so low.

6

While starting up, you can also use Hydro Online for monetizing since it won’t show ads on your website.