Local readers have been asking me for at least a year when, BizSense is going expand to another market.
I’m always flattered that they think BizSense is innovative enough to work somewhere else and I usually answer, “Someday, but covering Richmond takes all our energy right now.” Then I block the idea out of my mind and work with our newsroom to dig up the most helpful, interesting business stories.
Well, now I can change my answer. And for our local advertisers, we now have a similarly targeted, cost-effective advertising option for a second Virginia market.
Early this year, BizSense partnered with the daily newspaper in Fredericksburg to build a daily NewsFeed email in that market. It’s called the Fredericksburg Business Insider, and if you check it out, you’ll notice the similarities. We even helped them come up the name.
FBI (and we’re still getting a kick out the abbreviation) has been far more successful than Richmond BizSense was in our first few months. The email has 15 advertisers and goes out to almost 5,000 subscribers. The reason it has worked so well is that the newspaper there, The Free-Lance Star, has an exceptional business reporter named Bill Freehling. He puts it together each morning and writes many of the local business stories. He then fills it with other helpful stories from around the Web, just like I do for Richmonders.
The paper also has deep relationships with local advertisers who have jumped at the chance to reach a sought-after demographic in a new, fresh way.
The partnership is a loose one, but BizSense advertisers who want to reach a similar demographic in that market can place the ad through us. Likewise, Fredericksburg Business Insider advertisers can call that paper to get an ad on our site. Hopefully that leads to more advertising for both papers.
There are a few other new things in the BizSense pipeline. We’ve added section-specific sponsorships for our weekly features, such as Monday Q&A and the HR roundup called The Herd. The new sponsorships put the advertiser’s logo in the section graphic along with a block advertisement in the middle of the section. We will be rolling out those new graphics in coming weeks but you can see one in today’s Q&A.
And perhaps most exciting, we are launching a new email called Off the Clock, which will go out on Thursdays to our NewsFeed subscribers and give them a Top 5 list of recreational options for the weekend as well as leisure reading for the weekend. It will have links to the best leisure/lifestyle journalism from around the web. This is our first step outside pure business news, and we hope that local venues, event promoters and recreational businesses see the value in our audience and jump on as advertisers. Off the Clock might also allow us to sell to other advertisers who want just one day a week of exposure. Look for the first Off the Clock email to come out in June.
Aaron Kremer is the BizSense founder and editor. Please send business tips to [email protected].
Local readers have been asking me for at least a year when, BizSense is going expand to another market.
I’m always flattered that they think BizSense is innovative enough to work somewhere else and I usually answer, “Someday, but covering Richmond takes all our energy right now.” Then I block the idea out of my mind and work with our newsroom to dig up the most helpful, interesting business stories.
Well, now I can change my answer. And for our local advertisers, we now have a similarly targeted, cost-effective advertising option for a second Virginia market.
Early this year, BizSense partnered with the daily newspaper in Fredericksburg to build a daily NewsFeed email in that market. It’s called the Fredericksburg Business Insider, and if you check it out, you’ll notice the similarities. We even helped them come up the name.
FBI (and we’re still getting a kick out the abbreviation) has been far more successful than Richmond BizSense was in our first few months. The email has 15 advertisers and goes out to almost 5,000 subscribers. The reason it has worked so well is that the newspaper there, The Free-Lance Star, has an exceptional business reporter named Bill Freehling. He puts it together each morning and writes many of the local business stories. He then fills it with other helpful stories from around the Web, just like I do for Richmonders.
The paper also has deep relationships with local advertisers who have jumped at the chance to reach a sought-after demographic in a new, fresh way.
The partnership is a loose one, but BizSense advertisers who want to reach a similar demographic in that market can place the ad through us. Likewise, Fredericksburg Business Insider advertisers can call that paper to get an ad on our site. Hopefully that leads to more advertising for both papers.
There are a few other new things in the BizSense pipeline. We’ve added section-specific sponsorships for our weekly features, such as Monday Q&A and the HR roundup called The Herd. The new sponsorships put the advertiser’s logo in the section graphic along with a block advertisement in the middle of the section. We will be rolling out those new graphics in coming weeks but you can see one in today’s Q&A.
And perhaps most exciting, we are launching a new email called Off the Clock, which will go out on Thursdays to our NewsFeed subscribers and give them a Top 5 list of recreational options for the weekend as well as leisure reading for the weekend. It will have links to the best leisure/lifestyle journalism from around the web. This is our first step outside pure business news, and we hope that local venues, event promoters and recreational businesses see the value in our audience and jump on as advertisers. Off the Clock might also allow us to sell to other advertisers who want just one day a week of exposure. Look for the first Off the Clock email to come out in June.
Aaron Kremer is the BizSense founder and editor. Please send business tips to [email protected].
Great to hear! Looking for to reading “Off the Clock.” excellent idea.
Good stuff, Aaron – congratulations! I also like the “Off the Clock” idea and will look forward to receiving it.
Well done Aaron! It’s great to see your influence expand beyond Richmond. Keep up the good work!
This is awesome news and one step closer to taking over the world!