Expanding local news: strategies for market growth

BlueLena hosted a Community Roundtable in February 2025 featuring three BlueLena community members — Jay Senter (Johnson County Post), Jimmy Boegle (Reno News & Review, Coachella Valley Independent) and Rita McNeil Danish (Signal Ohio) — on how to expand into new markets by acquiring a current publication or launching a new newsroom. Below are four insights from the publishers on their strategies and lessons learned.

How to know where to expand

Your team sees a need for independent news in a new market, whether that’s to fill a gap in a news ecosystem or to acquire a current publication that needs an assist. You’re primed to expand — but how do you know if you’re choosing the right location or acquisition?

Ask your potential audience. Jay Senter, publisher of Johnson County Post, understood that his current and potential audiences define themselves by the school district they live in. “Public schools are the jewel and the crown of Johnson County, and so the public school districts are how people think about where they live in the county: Shawnee Mission, or Blue Valley, or Olathe,” Senter said. With their original publication based out of Shawnee Mission, Jay and his team chose to expand into the Blue Valley School District.

After a year, they decided to expand again, into the third local school district, Olathe. But before they did, they surveyed their readers. “We had some reason to believe that people would be turned off by something that was countywide. But then, when we asked folks what they were looking for, they were good with it.” So they expanded again, reporting on a district that hadn’t been covered, and filling a void in local news in Johnson County.

Rita McNeil Danish, chief executive officer of Signal Ohio, agreed with the importance of audience surveys. Signal’s team posted surveys and hosted focus groups before launching their first newsroom in Cleveland, to understand what residents were looking for in their news. As Rita noted, “What that research showed was exactly what they anticipated: that those communities either were underserved, underrepresented or just weren’t getting any local news at all.” The team at Signal saw the need for local news that reengaged Cleveland residents.

Signal Ohio’s plan was always to expand to more cities and communities in Ohio. They were prepared from the start to grow into new markets and launch new newsrooms. Said Rita, “They were going to change the way news was done across the state, and that meant that we have a hub and spoke, which means we have an entire business team that focuses on all the back office functions.” They were sure to build out their team with a chief audience officer, chief development officer, chief financial officer and other business-focused roles, so that the newsrooms can focus on what the specific audience needs are in each city.

How to learn about your potential audience

Now that your organization has decided to grow into a new market, your team will want to understand what that audience expects and wants from their local newsroom.

To gather audience research, like both Johnson County Post and Signal Ohio did, there are a variety of outreach opportunities to connect with potential readers. Rita shared that at Signal, “We did a combination of community listening, surveying and general research” of other news publications in the area and past news outlets that had been in the area but closed. They asked residents why they disconnected from the news and why they don’t trust the news — and, crucially, what would bring them back to local news again.

Jay agreed, noting that Johnson County Post hosts in-person events, especially around election season, in an effort to hear directly from readers about what they want to know ahead of elections. Plus, when they decided to expand, they went back to their school district method and created a spreadsheet of the number of families in each school district. That way, they were able to break it down by the number of people living in and identifying with each district.

How to connect with advertisers and sponsors

For many newsrooms, access to revenue plays a major role in deciding if it’s possible to expand or acquire. That might mean approaching current and potential advertisers or sponsors with your idea.

That’s just what Jay and his team did: “The advertisers were the first people we went to with this idea. “‘Hey, we’re thinking about doing this. What would you think?’” While it may seem nerve-wracking to pitch an expansion or acquisition to advertisers, it means growth for them too. In Jay’s case, all of his advertisers and sponsors were interested in the extended reach.

If you’re looking for new advertisers or sponsors for your expansion, consider the local institutions right in your area, like your Parks and Recreation Department, hospitals, libraries and banks. These businesses and organizations are invested in the community, and could be interested in new ways to connect with community members.

Those community institutions may also offer you insider insight: When Jimmy Boegle, executive editor and publisher of Reno News & Review and Coachella Valley Independent, was relaunching the Reno publication, he spoke with advertisers and learned how important the print edition had been to the community. With that knowledge, he brought back the print version, and even distributed it by hand at Reno businesses, where residents were emotional and visibly moved when they saw the print Review had returned.

How to approach messaging two markets

Once you’ve expanded into a new market, it’s essential to consider how your team is going to message your new audience. Even if the audiences are neighboring communities, they have unique needs.

Jimmy emphasized writing different sets of messaging. When he acquired Reno News & Review, his hometown news organization, the publication had been shuttered for a few years and needed to be relaunched digitally. On the other hand, Coachella Valley Independent has seen reliable growth since it began in 2013, and needed messaging related to continued growth.

There are occasions when similar messaging can work across publications. Said Jimmy, “There are some things that I’ve learned that work in both markets, like really effective campaigns that we’ve used with the Independent that could actually work in Reno as well… One of the ones that I remember we did for a year-end campaign was “a world without the Coachella Valley Independent,” and that one was really successful in terms of bringing in revenue, and of course it worked in Reno as well, although it had an entirely different meaning up there, because they literally did have 26 months at least in the minds of many readers.”

Rita and her team at Signal Ohio also realized they need distinctive language for each of their markets. When they expanded to Cincinnati, readers there “did not want to be compared to Cleveland, did not want to be merged with Cleveland, and wanted to have their own identity.” While in the same state, the cities have individual needs and personalities.

In Ohio, another layer was that many residents had walked away from the news. Messaging needed to be specific to place, but also sensitive to communities that had been disengaged by news in the past. Rita shared that Signal’s messaging focused on “a sense of community, a sense of identity and a sense of trust in that news. And so what we embarked on doing was doing that.”

Conclusion

Expanding into a new market or acquiring a current publication is a huge undertaking. Your team will need to find the right place or publication to expand into, do audience research to make sure you’re offering what the community needs, connect with advertisers or sponsors who can invest in your growth and realize the unique messaging opportunities for a multiple-publication news organization. Said Rita: “Take your time. It is absolutely intentional.”

At the same time, it’s absolutely necessary. Fifty-five million Americans do not have access to local news. As David Grant, Director of Partnerships at Blue Engine, shared at the end of the BlueLena Roundtable, “There’s no one else coming to save these communities. If you’re on this phone call, you are some material percentage of the cavalry.”

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About BlueLena

BlueLena is a strategy consulting and audience management platform founded in 2020 to support the sustainability of independent local media. By combining cutting-edge technology with expert-driven services, BlueLena helps over 250 news organizations across North America develop and manage subscription, membership, and donation models. Its unique shared-resource management approach provides publishers, regardless of size, with access to enterprise-level tools and personalized support, enabling them to focus on high-quality journalism while building loyal, revenue-generating audiences. 

BlueLena is majority employee-owned, and backed by investors including Automattic (the parent company of WordPress), the Local Media Association, and Old Town Media.