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Building blocks in the emerging local news ecosystem

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Statistics
Unique monthly visitors

190,000
Average page views

1,500,000
Average visits

400,000
E-newsletter

  • Yes, multiple newsletters
E-newsletter subscribers

10,000
Facebook likes

40,000
Twitter followers

5,000
Instagram followers

2,000
You Tube

1,500
Revenue

  • $501,000 - $1 million
Primary revenue source(s)

  • Local advertising (including web and e-newsletter ads)
Ad products

  • Traditional Web display advertising sold directly by your organization
  • Traditional Web display advertising sold via an ad network or ad buyer
  • Contextual advertising delivered based on the user or the content (such as Adsense or Outbrain)
  • Sponsored content or native advertising
  • Business directory or shopping site
  • Social media services

Paywall

  • No
Distribution

  • Direct to web/mobile
Total personnel/contributor FTE

19
Date of most recent publisher update

05/19/2019
Last Publisher Update

  • 2019-05-19 19:44:17 UTC
Richland Source
Ohio
Richland Source

Richland Source covers the people and happenings in Richland County in north-central Ohio. It was founded in 2013 by Jay Allred. Revenue: Advertising, business services, grants.

Who is in charge?

Jay Allred

Job title

President

City

Mansfield

State

Ohio

Zip code

44902

Year launched

2013

Tax status

  • LLC

Geographic scope

  • Small city or town

Other geographic focus

Ashland, Knox, and Richland County Ohio

Population of coverage area

200000

Scope of coverage

  • General news or a number of topics that are not necessarily closely related to each other

Primary focus

  • Current news and events

Topics of coverage

  • Business in coverage area
  • Entertainment & arts
  • Government
  • Sports & recreation
  • Other

Other content topics

Solutions Journalism

Watchdog journalism?

  • Yes, occasional

Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/RichlandSource

Site Twitter handle

@RichlandSource

Effective engagement practice

We do a lot of things, but the most successful tool is also our biggest source of referred traffic and that is Facebook. We monitor user engagement religiously via CrowdTangle and constantly optimize for best practices.

Additionally, we do a ton of in-person events, have growing e-mail lists, use Hearken to connect with readers, and are very involved in the community in general.

Revenue challenges

The digital media market is increasingly fractured. That makes it difficult / expensive to provide the comprehensive solutions advertisers want. Colored boxes are not enough when you don't have the scale to monetize programmatic.

In the news

https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/05/why-richland-source-built-a-system-for-automating-high-school-sports-articles-and-stopped-selling-apparel/

https://facebookjournalismproject.com/article/richland-source-building-a-sustainable-future-for-local-journalism/

https://current.org/2018/10/with-community-baby-shower-ohio-news-outlet-puts-healthy-spin-on-depressing-topic/