My Thoughts on TAPinto Turning 15 and Lessons Learned for Local News Entrepreneurs
In 2008, I had been working for five years as an attorney in New York City and commuting from my hometown of New Providence, New Jersey. My wife and I learned that our one-year-old son needed open heart surgery. It made me rethink what I was doing with my life. For his first year of life, I was barely home. I decided I wanted to do something where I could see my wife and son, help my community and do something I really wanted to do. I decided to start an online local news site.
When I launched The Alternative Press (now known as TAPinto), I did not know it would grow to become one of the largest networks of local news providers and the only franchise model for local news in the United States. Back then, I also did not know how to write a news story or how to sell advertising. I did not know that a few months after our launch, AOL would launch a competitor and spend hundreds of millions of dollars expanding all over the country. In short, I did not know a lot of things that I know today. What I did know then, which I still know today, is that local news matters and there is a large audience for it. Fifteen years after I launched The Alternative Press (now called TAPinto), I have learned a lot more.
First and foremost, local news is a business. Whether you run a for-profit local news operation or a non-profit, it needs to be run like a business. That means providing the best end product for the consumer, while keeping expenses low and constantly working to increase revenue and marketshare. Your consumers are not only your readers but your marketing partners, and you cannot exist without both of them.
Second, just like with any business, you will have ups and downs, on an almost daily basis. At times you feel like you are on a rollercoaster. That’s normal. And it goes with the territory. On your lowest low day, think about one of your best days. Don’t let a down day get to you. Brush yourself off and get back on your feet as your local business does not stop, and in fact, by its nature cannot stop or the thousands of local readers who depend on you will not be able to do so.
Third, while you should also keep an eye on your competitors, do not fixate on them. Do not change what you are doing because you see them doing it differently. If you see a good idea here or there, imitation is the purest form of flattery. But stay true to who you are and what you do. Lead, don’t follow.
Fourth, don’t change your model because others are changing theirs, unless and until their change proves itself to be superior to what you are doing. Until then, don’t waste your time and resources on it. Just in the last 15 years, there has been a push towards subscriptions, then a push towards nonprofit models for local news, and now a rush to AI. Some of these may pan out as long-term success stories, but we already see several of them coming up short.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, don’t let anyone other than yourself tell you that you can’t hack it, that you should give up. When AOL launched a well-funded competitor right in my backyard, many people told me to give up and that I should go back to being an attorney in New York City. While I can’t say I wasn’t worried, I had confidence that we would survive and that with hard work and determination, we would thrive.
I am so glad I did not listen to the naysayers then. If I had, more than 125 communities in four states would not have a local news platform. But even more than that, I wouldn’t have met literally tens of thousands of people, many of whom have become my friends. I wouldn’t know the nearly 1,000 advertisers without whom we would not exist; the more than 95 franchisees who have become my second family; and our incredible corporate team whose work ethic and loyalty are second to none. I wouldn’t know the patience and support from my wife and my two bright and zany children. And I wouldn’t know that against all odds, a person with no sales skills or a background in journalism, could create a network of local news and digital marketing platforms that could make such an impact in the lives of so many people and such a difference in the more than 125 communities we serve.
On our 15th birthday, I am especially thankful for the opportunity I was given to create TAPinto and I look forward to the positive impact we will have in the years ahead.
