A hyperlocal news organisation wants to expand across the UK by offering franchises to budding publishers.
Norfolk-based Just Regional currently publishes 12 monthly magazines in towns and cities across the county and is encouraging journalists and sales staff to join the company.
Since it began publishing its first title, Just Aylsham, seven years ago, the company says it has grown from two part-time staff to 12 office staff, 120 distribution staff and a turnover in excess of £400,000.
Owner Lee Todd describes the company as being built on a belief that hyperlocal news can be presented using high specification paper, quality journalism, excellent photography and professional sales.
Just Hellesdon – one of the titles in the Just Regional series
He said: “There will undoubtedly be people out there working for large news publishing companies in sales or editorial who are wondering why they are making money for the company and not for themselves.
“It may be that some of them are prevented from taking that step because they are sales people who do not know enough about editorial, or vice versa.
“The beauty of a franchise with Just Regional is that we can train, advise and back up people in the arenas of the industry in which they are not experts.
“We have a proven formula and procedures for making hyperlocal publishing work.”
Lee now hopes to expand beyond the company’s Norfolk heartland.
He added: “We’ve done an incredible job in Norfolk showing how hyperlocal can work, in a competitive marketplace, both for advertisers and readers.
“A lot of publishers have talked about hyperlocal for a long time – we have actually done it and made a success of the model.
“Come and get on board.”
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It was the “towns and cities across the county” line that made me chuckle. This is Norfolk we are talking about, mate.
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I may work for the supposed “big boys” in Norfolk but I have looked at these magazines with admiration and often wonder why we didn’t capture this market. Good on them.
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If Archant had been doing its job properly these magazines would never have seen the light of day.
Archant is being made to pay for years of understaffing and complacency. Now they have lost the ground they will never recapture it, unless of course they buy out the brand
Horse…stable door… bolted….
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With a dozen staff, that’s more than most weeklies, or dare I say it, regional dailies. If it uses just own-sourced news and reporting, quality local talent on the photography front, and brings a flavour of personality to the whole thing, well, goodbye JP, TM and all the other publishers who have left carcasses of newspapers behind.
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Shame the design is so dated and unpleasant on the eye. Looks really amateurish.
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£400k turnover, lots of staff, distribution, print and production costs? Whats the profit can’t seem to find any accounts anywhere?
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Some of the ‘amateurish’ hyperlocals that have started up are doing better than the professional rivals.
At what point do the pros become the amateurs in the new world?
As for buying out the hyperlocal brands, who is to say they would want to sell? Generally such things would be aqui-hires and there is likely a reason the brands exist…
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“Design is poor” “What’s the profit?”
I for one get my magazine in the city and love it and it’s easy to follow not over complicated design.
Best of luck to them I say, can’t have been easy I’m sure but they are 7 years in and offering employment at their Norwich office.
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Bold claims but anyone can make bold claims when you’re not VFD or ABC backed
The design is,to be honest awful, and the look is basic desk top publishing quality so i would suggest they get their own house in order before offering ‘expert advice’ to potential franchisees
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‘Norfolk boy’ and ‘mister nobody’
hmmm. I wonder where those two work? Let me guess
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Independent local magazines are thriving in Norfolk as most are staffed by experienced ex regional press people who know the business, the areas,have the contacts and who capitalise on the many weaknesses of the big boys whilst giving the kind of quality and service we used to when the business was properly managed and run and we had little competition as a result.
We could also learn a lot from how they operate and deal with readers and advertisers but instead of doing so will simply pooh pooh and rubbish their efforts and publications whilst justifying the outdated and tired methods still in use that are dragging us further into the mire.
You have to respect those local publishers and ex RP staff prepared to go it alone and stand up to the big boys as with local papers dying and readers leaving by the week the future of regional publishing appears to be heading more and more their way.
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when David slayed Goliath did everyone turn around and say ‘your sling’s a bit crap fella’? Or suggest he change his style of throw because it wasn’t textbook? You’ve got to love the nay-sayers and whingers in this comment section. Give it a go chaps, what Just Regional does is what journalism always used to be about! It isn’t about that vile phrase ‘UGC’, it’s about contacts. If I was middle management I’d coin the phrase ‘Contacts Generated Content’ aka CGC – and live off the glory until someone else reinvented the wheel a few years down the line. Contacts, contacts, contacts. Remember those days? They were fun, weren’t they?
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To knock is a sign of insecurity when had the so called ‘ big boys’ not been complacent and backward looking they would have concentrated more in getting their own ailing papers in order and not leaving the door wide open to the magazine entrepreneurs who are thriving in what Archant always arrogantly felt was their own territory.
With some of these competitor news and lifestyle magazines growing revenues and readerships at a time when the local ‘big boys’ are losing theirs it’s all a little bit too little and too late to halt their progress now.
Good luck to all independents prepared to give it a go and give readers and local busibesses a true alternative
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Dear Mssrs nobody and Norfolk boy
personally I think running a business with costs out of control, papers that have lost their readership,commercial sales figures on the floor, managers managing managers ,a special team set up to write churn,a TV channel that celebrates getting programmes to air without satellites crashing or presenters swearing ,and businesses tied in to year long panic measure advertising contracts is probably more ‘amateurish ‘ than the output of these hyper local magazines.
Not that anyone would run a business like that of course
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I Just want to wish them good luck.
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It’s true these titles aren’t the most beautiful and the content can be a little predictable. But people like them, simple as that. The magazines fill a void vacated by the “big” titles. Good luck to them.
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Good luck to Lee Todd and co, i hope they get lots of uptake for this franchise idea from editorial and advertising people currently working hard but not being rewarded for it and just treading water in the regional press.
Even in a county as relatively small as Norfolk there are many areas where the local paper is a poor imitation of what it was with a dwindling readership and advertising base yet they carry on unchallenged with Archant having the monopoly and no competitor title for people to move across to.
There’s a decent free independent weekly in west Norfolk and some really first class magazines on the east coast again staffed by ex Archant people, all of which are taking business share and thriving
.
Many business people are just waiting for a good local independent alternative to open up so the customer base is already there and as has been proven by this group you can make a good go of it with the right approach, the right contacts and a determination to succeed,something you don’t get at a big organisation where you’re just a name or a staff number with no real voice and as was mentioned in the article ‘working to fill someone else’s pockets and with no thanks and no future .
There’s never been a better time as they say so good luck again to those who take up the offer
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They need a good partnerships manager or director of projects ( partners) to get their business going I would say, im amazed they’ve lasted this long without one!
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Geoff, you say they need to “get their business going” It seems to me they are already doing that and quite successfully!
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@suzisneeze look up ‘irony ‘
Or do you work for the publisher ?
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I assume you’re in the local regional press industry Ms Sneeze as you are commenting on a site primarily used by regional press journalists?
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