This webinar, hosted by Matt Larson, President and CEO of Our-Hometown Web Publishing, with Betsy Edwards, Executive Director of the Virginia Press Association (VPA), detailed the VPA’s successful Digital Initiative. The initiative aims to bring all Virginia newspapers online with their own websites, driven by the critical need for digital presence for business, public notice compliance, and long-term sustainability. The discussion covered the program’s origins, its three-year financial support model, impressive growth metrics from six initial papers, and the broader implications for the future of local news, including legislative pressures around public notices and the potential for grant funding. Our-Hometown’s full-service platform and partnership model were highlighted as key to the initiative’s success, offering a replicable model for other press associations.

If you are a publisher or representative of a press association and would like more information, please reach out to us at ops@our-hometown.com

The post Our-Hometown & VPA Digital Initiative: A Model for Newspaper Sustainability — Webinar Replay first appeared on Our-Hometown.

My second objective was to conduct research on print circulation systems for integration into Memberpress. We are trying to create a tool for publishers to manage their print and digital subscribers in one place on the website. The manual methods that many of our customers use to keep their website and print subscription lists in sync are unnecessary and could be eliminated if both lists were managed from the web. I am feeling very confident that we can identify the key features of the print circulation software used by our customers and replicate it in our system.

I took off early to give myself plenty of time for the 1 hour drive north, passing between the shores of the Great Salt Lake on my left, and the foothills of the Wasatch front on my right. We had our morning internal Zoom meetings and I listened in from my phone.

When I arrived at 10am, Casey and I spent some time reviewing the site’s statistics and latest upgrades to Audio Articles. Then we switched to his Circulation PC.

“I think every publisher that I’ve spoken to has to maintain an old PC that is compatible with their print circulation software”, I noted.

“Yeah, this software is pretty old, but we really need it to generate our postal reports”, Casey replied.

We soon got to work on digging through his requirements for a print circulation system. I started a huddle with engineering so we were all able to drill down the specifics.

We discussed the need for the system to verify addresses, generate delivery routes, and pair barcodes with addresses in order to get as much of a discount on postage costs as possible.

“One thing that’s going to take effect at the end of the year is new USPS requirements to submit these postal reports digitally. It’s called ‘PostalOne’”, explained Casey.

This really piqued my interest. It didn’t sound like he was ready for this new requirement, so does that mean many if not all of our customers will be facing this new requirement without a solution?

We are now researching more about PostalOne and how to automate postal reporting.

After he described all the critical features of a print subscription system, Casey showed me around the office and I got to see their massive printer. He contracts to print a small paper in Idaho, but no longer prints his paper because he needs color on all pages.

After the tour I departed south for Salt Lake City, my mind reeling at the possibilities to help publishers save time and money with this new software.

If you are interested in participating in the development of this product, or would like to apply for the beta trial, please contact us at OPS@our-hometown.com.

The post The Our Hometown Road Show – Visiting Box Elder News Journal first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this publisher interview the Our-Hometown team is joined by Alexis Tackett of the New Pine Plains Herald in New York. We hear about the onboarding process, website traffic, newsletters, and general feedback on features of the new website.

The post Alexis Tackett – New Pine Plains Herald | OHT Publisher Interview first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this publisher interview Vera Lemonovich and Tyler Wood of the Our-Hometown team is joined by Will Brumleve of the Ford County Chronicle in Illinois. We hear about the onboarding process, paywall performance and revenue, ad network implementation, and general feedback on features of the new website.

A few highlights:

Tyler: What did you think of the onboarding process. How do you think that went?

Will: The process was just fine. I mean, we had a little bit of it back and forth, but it was definitely nothing less than what I would have expected or more than what I would have expected. And it was fine. Getting off the ground was good, and even got the paywall up, you know, and to do so on time.

Tyler: And how has the paywall been going for you? Have you gotten any feedback on that from your readers?

Will: I mean, so far so good. I haven’t had any one like cancel and like then take out an online subscription, which was kind of what I was worried about … But that hasn’t happened.

We’ve also we’ve also had some people come back who had stopped their paper, you know, a year ago. And now they’re doing the online [subscription], … I’ve heard good feedback in the sense that our e-edition is up and there’s been some interest in that. There’s been a lot of people who seem to like to have it both ways, you know, print paper and online.

I’m pretty happy with the revenue part of it. … I’m almost like, okay, when is it going to … hit that plateau, but it seems like it’s just kind of been [new subs] every single day.

The post Will Brumleve – Ford County Chronicle | OHT Publisher Interview first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this publisher interview the Our-Hometown team is joined by Keven Zepezauer, President and Publisher at Restoration NewsMedia in North Carolina. We hear about the onboarding process of multiple sites, as well as features customized for their needs, such as a source-based paywall, advanced newsletter design, print-digital subscription management via CircPro, and a new dark visual theme implementation.

The post Keven Zepezauer of Restoration NewsMedia | OHT Publisher Interview first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this publisher interview the Our-Hometown team is joined by Emily Sachar, Publisher and Editor of the Red Hook Daily Catch based in New York’s Hudson Valley. Emily was featured on NPR for her unique collaboration with a man named Pavel . . . and his cat Dora, and in this interview gives some remarkable insights into the story.

So why would a hyper-local news site in New York have its own Ukraine war correspondent? Gregory Warner of the Rough Translation podcast tells the tale.

—NPR’s ‘Rough Translation’: Redefining local news in an interconnected world

Plus lots of details on newsletter experiments and other creative uses of the OHT platform!

This in-depth interview video also includes chapter markers for easy navigation.

Be sure to pay a visit to the Red Hook Daily Catch!

The post Emily Sachar of the Red Hook Daily Catch | Publisher Interview first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this publisher interview the Our-Hometown team is joined by Kristen Weaver, Director of Operations at the Wilson County News in Floresville Texas.

We hear some wonderful history, as well as how the website has been doing over the past year, including general subscription growth, revenue streams, social media, and how the paper has been using audio articles combined with live podcasting.

This in-depth interview video also includes plenty of chapter markers for easy navigation.

Be sure to pay a visit to the Wilson County News!

The post Kristen Weaver of the Wilson County News | Publisher Interview first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Our-Hometown is excited to present this WEBINAR INTERVIEW with the Directors of the Virginia Press Association — the innovators of the original Digital Initiative program! The event was recorded on Thursday, July 28th at 2PM Eastern.

Our-Hometown President & CEO Matthew Larson is joined by the Directors of the Virginia Press Association to discuss the ins-and-outs of the Digital Initiative program: how the idea started, what prompted the VPA to partner with Our-Hometown, and what kind of impact the program has had on association members.

As our partner on the original Digital Initiative, the Virginia Press Association has helped us build the program from the ground up, and serves as a model for future Digital Initiative programs to follow. No one is in a better position to share their thoughts on the program than the brain trust at the Virginia Press Association!

If you’re considering getting involved in our Digital Initiative, or want to build some demand for your own press association, you won’t want to skip this informative interview!

The post Webinar Interview with VPA Directors on the Digital Initiative | July 28, 2022 [Replay] first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Radcliffe’s work and research has been referenced frequently by our friends at Today in News Tech, and we’re excited for the opportunity to sit down with him and discuss some of these topics in more depth.

Best of all, you’re invited to attend! This live interview will be broadcast over Zoom and publishers interested in attending will be e-mailed a link to join the conference, where they can listen in to the discussion. There may even be an opportunity for the audience to ask a question or two!

Please fill out the short form below to register for this live interview event. You will receive an e-mail invite containing a link to join the event on Thursday afternoon.

The post Damian Radcliffe to join Our-Hometown for a live interview this Thursday first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Today in News Tech recently discussed one of Tchivzhel’s Mather Economics articles, “Revenue Models Based on Newspaper Subscribers” for their video podcast, and are excited to have him join their program for an in-depth interview on the subject.

The LIVE interview will take place Wednesday, November 17th at 1PM EST and is free to attend! Click below to register now.

The post Today in News Tech to interview Mather Economics’ Arvid Tchivzhel first appeared on Our-Hometown.