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Come join us, explore the impact of small business here in rural Arkansas.

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What challenges would you face? Who can help you meet those challenges? How do you get in touch with others like you?

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This is Create Bridges, Arkansas. And we invite you to come cross these bridges with us.

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Welcome back to the Create Bridges podcast, Small Business Big Rural Impact.

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I'm Brandon Matthews, regional program coordinator for the Ozark Foothills.

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I had the chance to sit down with Kim Break editor at Area Wide Media.

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Area Wide Media is a digital and print newspaper company, operating three community papers that run weekly,

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a monthly magazine and a weekly classifieds section for businesses and entrepreneurs to advertise their

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goods and services in all of these products can be found online to check the show notes for more details.

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Kim addresses how partnering with local media to advertise your business can be beneficial and shows

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the success story offers some insights into how print media is still relevant in rural communities.

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Despite readership dropping in urban settings and she shares how the local media can help with job searching,

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workforce development and skills training happening in the area.

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A reoccurring theme throughout the episode was for businesses and individuals to call the local paper,

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even if they weren't sure if what they had to say was newsworthy. After all, though, aren't your ideas we're sharing?

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Kim, and area wide media thinks so. I hope you enjoyed this episode.

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Well, good morning, Kim. Good morning. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to interview you on the create Bridges podcast.

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I'm really excited to talk about area wide media and what you guys are doing.

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And thank you so much also for just getting the word out and being attentive to what we're doing, the area.

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We really appreciate the support. Well, we really appreciate being asked to be a part of this.

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It's not all the time that we're on the other side of things, you know, getting to answer some questions.

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So this is a nice change. All right. Well, hopefully I live up to that expectation you guys set.

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But for our listeners, just tell us who you are, what you do, and a little bit about area wide media.

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Well, my name is Kim Break and I am the editor at Area Wide Media.

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And so our company, we're a media company. We have three weekly subscription newspapers, one weekly free shopper.

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And we have a monthly magazine that serves kind of a combination of all of those areas.

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So are each of our three weekly products. We have Villager Journal, which covers Sharp County, Arkansas.

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And then we have the news, which covers Fulton and Izard counties in Arkansas.

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And then we have the South Missouri News, which covers Oregon County in Missouri.

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And we also include our Mammoth Spring News. Just because they're in Mammoth are so close and our Avenues magazine.

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And it's a fun free product for the community where we get to really highlight some feel good stories.

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Whereas, you know, our weekly products, our news, you know,

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news content and the magazine really allows us to explore some of the fun things in our community and really highlight,

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you know, just some neat stories of different individuals and organizations that make up all of those territories, all of those coverage areas.

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And then our record area wide record it's a resource for businesses to advertise and it's a weekly product.

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Free goes into mailboxes, is over 20000 homes in this area.

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Great. And in talking about advertising, marketing for businesses, you mentioned the record,

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other opportunities and some of the other publications that you guys have to advertise.

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Most definitely. All of those products, all of them had advertising.

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Opportunities that the record just is strictly for advertising.

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It doesn't have any kind of content or anything like that, and it's free. Whereas the subscriptions, you know, we have advertising and those as well.

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But it includes more of your news content for your local areas.

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Obviously, you guys are still in the business of print. But what are all the ways people can get a hold of what media's content?

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All right. So we have, of course, like you said, we print our products and so we have our subscription.

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And of course, the record, you do not have to sign up for anything.

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It just comes to the mailbox automatically. Our subscription papers, you, of course,

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have to sign up and you can do that by calling our office eight seven zero eight nine five three two zero seven.

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We also have our Web site, and you can sign up through our Web site, area wide news.com,

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and you can sign up for subscription for any of those through our Web site as well.

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And our Web site also offers.

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We have our readers on there, which you can go and view the papers just like you would just like they appear, you know, printed.

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And then we also publish our news stories where if maybe you're just interested in sharing one of the news stories from that week or,

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you know, just getting some information from something that you had seen in the paper, you can access that on our Web site as well.

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In full disclosure, I am a subscriber and use that very often online.

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I'm just recently renewed and started getting a print copy in the mail.

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So I appreciate that. And that's something that is interesting that, you know,

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whenever you sign up for a subscription for your print copy, you get the online access as well.

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So, you know, if you want that in your hand, print copy. You also have the access to, you know, online copies as well.

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So shifting into, you know, create bridges, you know, our our focus has been in four main business sectors up here.

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That's retail, entertainment, tourism and accommodation.

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Tell us why local media is important for promoting those sectors and in what you guys really have an opportunity to tap into to help those businesses.

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Right? Well, you know, our area, especially take, the hardy area, for example, tourism, you know, is very, very important to that area.

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And so a lot of the time, we'll have folks who are coming to visit look up area wide.

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And, you know, they want to look up a local group,

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local advertising group or just whatever to be able to see, OK, what services does this area have to offer?

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And they'll come to their local media group.

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You know what the areas, you know, local media group is to be able to, you know, look at some of those things.

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So, you know, they might be coming to our product to see, you know, restaurants, you know, in the area or,

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you know, hotels in the area, you know, different things like that because they want to see what's going on.

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In the area, so then, though, of course, you know, come and look at our product for to see what's going on was whether it's events

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going on or advertisers to see if there is no special on something or just,

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hey, who's out there? Yeah. Well, speaking of events, that's a good segue way.

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You guys are at those often covering, not getting photos, interviews and just writing up.

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How can a business owner tap into that or a community festival that maybe isn't utilizing you guys or inviting you?

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Like what? What's the process of getting that type of exposure and really using you guys as a as a partner?

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Well, one thing that we do offer, like on the news side of things, you know,

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if it is a nonprofit organization, you know, like your fares, we we do stories on those.

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We we like to make sure to put all of the details of what's going on.

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We like to share those things. So, you know, just reaching out to us and say, hey, you know, we'd like to get a story about this out there,

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you know, reaching out to us and just making that first step and saying, you know, here's what we've got going on.

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And, you know, we'd love to have it covered. And we also that's part of our jobs is to seek out these groups and organizations,

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individuals to kind of vice versa, to then say, hey, let us do this for your event.

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But then on the flip side, as far as like advertisers and businesses, you know,

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in order to promote like Fair Week and different things like that, we sometimes will do specials.

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And, you know, we ask these businesses to jump on board, you know, to support the fair and to really show the community like,

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hey, here's what's going on, let's get out and, you know, support this.

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And so businesses really do jump on board. And the easiest way for them to to get with us on that is by contacting our sales representatives.

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We have two right now, Stephanie Pierce, she's our sales director and Hannah Smith, and they are both very knowledgeable about ad sizes.

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Add content. And you know what looks good?

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What's going to get you the best, you know, bang for your buck?

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I guess so to speak.

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You know, when it comes to putting those things together and choosing what product to advertise in, like what's going to be the best for your group,

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what would you say to somebody who is maybe hesitant or, you know,

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isn't sure if you know the print or digital opportunities you guys have is right for their business.

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And we face this a lot. And this is kind of one of the biggest changes that I think that as a paper product that we've seen over the years.

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And with social media becoming very popular and something to that a lot of businesses utilize and, you know, they should utilize that, that's great.

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But what they also don't realize, there is not everyone has access to social media or not.

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Everyone wants to. I mean, that's you know, is in our rural communities,

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we are made up of a population where some people, you know, they they don't have to do social media.

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So therefore, they might not, you know, feel like that's something that they need to learn how to do at this point in their life or whatever.

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And, you know, because of reliable Internet, we know that not everyone has that in our communities yet.

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So having that paper product. You really reach.

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You might not realize that you're reaching a different audience. Might not be a greater in quantity wise, it might not be a bigger audience.

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But you are reaching a different group of people whenever.

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You still come to print media to put your name out there.

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And, you know, a lot of people, if they're just out and about, if they're not from this area.

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If they're just out walking around, they'll see, you know, one of our new newsstands.

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So it might be one of the record. And so they'll pick that up and say, OK, well, what can we find?

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You know, in this thing to where we can go.

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So they they still use those things to look for businesses, you know, and we have our classifieds sections, which is broke down.

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You know, by specifications, help wanted, you know, just different types of things like that that people can go to specifically houses for rent.

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You know, just different things like that. That. It might be a little harder online sometimes to just go and find where, as in the paper.

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We have a very direct and very clear purpose.

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And, you know, and it has a variety.

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Whether you want a classified ad or a stand alone box ad, you know that you can design and work with the sales reps on.

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There's just there's so much variety there.

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Even though it's still print, you still have a variety of different things that you can choose from and different people to reach.

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If your business is one that is, you know, really exploring your online marketing and different things like that, we have those opportunities as well.

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So it's not just that we are just pushing our only print product.

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You know, we have we have opportunities for businesses, whether, you know, whichever direction they want to take,

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because we do have our Web site, which has all of our all of the same content that's in our papers.

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So I think that that there's something that makes us very relevant still is the fact that we do have a variety of options,

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whether it's magazine, newspaper, online.

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One thing that I think is really, really interesting about area wide media.

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And one thing that we have to offer and that a lot of our readers really do enjoy.

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Because our company, which technically area wide media, they were established in the late 70s.

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But all of our products that make up area wide media.

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You know, some of them have been around. As back is like 1940s as far back as 1940s.

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So. We have such a history. We are tied to the history of our.

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And if you're looking at that, the tri county areas, you know, of helping the community.

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If you go back and look at some of our 50 year ago pages and different things,

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it is just so interesting to see the documentation of things and just over time.

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And I think that even with tourism, with create bridges and things like that,

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one thing that people really like to see is the history of communities and different things.

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And so that's one thing that's important to us, is anytime we get the chance to showcase history,

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but yet tie it to today's times and, you know, make that connection somehow.

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People love that kind of thing. And they. And that's one thing that we really do try to do a lot of is make that history connection.

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And again, it goes back with tourism because people like to learn about some of that stuff, like with Hardy being, you know, kind of a railroad town.

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And some of that history, you know, we've done different features on on those kinds of things.

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And, you know, that deserves the whole area. And that's always of a fun aspect of the position and of media.

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It's not always just news, but that's a good part of it as well.

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So what type of businesses or activities would you like to see more featured in area wide media across your different platforms?

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I think it would be great if we could get more of our new businesses.

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You know, even if it's just, you know, a one or two time ad and a lot of times if you,

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you know, sign up to run more than one time, you know, the pricing changes.

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So it becomes a little more you know, it makes more sense economically.

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But then, you know, just new businesses getting the word out. Big, going back to our audience and people that we serve.

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These are folks who might not be online all of the time or have that access.

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And so. You know, putting the word in the paper product about your new business, what you have to offer, when

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because that's another kind of thing that we see people they'll call us,

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you know, and say, hey, can you tell me when such and such is gonna be opening up or, you know, something like that?

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So even if it's just a simple you know, it could be a really nice Eye-Catching ad that,

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you know, has very simple information, but very good information. You know, that people need to have to support your business.

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And I think a lot of people don't realize, too, that if they see a business advertising in our local print product,

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they will see that person as, oh, well, they're really making a lot of effort to put the word out about themselves.

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So I'm going to go support them just from seeing them in the paper.

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And, you know, with our sales team, they are very good at what they do.

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And, you know, they know the type of content that would work best in the ad.

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And so they are able to work with the business and, you know, putting in what they want and what is needed.

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So say I own a restaurant or a hotel in the area and I want to advertise with you guys.

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I have zero marketing or advertising. I don't know the difference between Photoshop, pic, collage, canva, any of that stuff.

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That means nothing to me. Do you guys help develop the ad?

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Most definitely. All you would have to do is basically tell our sales rep people, you know, hey, I want this photo, this information, this color.

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And they will go and design it for you till it becomes something that you want in our sales reps have been in the areas and in and out.

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And, you know, they know what. What ads are better perceived by people and what's not.

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Talk about the credibility the local paper can give to a new business or business that's been around that people maybe just don't know that.

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Right. Well, you know, talking about a good example for this would be like our professional business and directory page,

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and that is a section that is part of our classifieds.

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You know, we have our classifieds section, which is kind of something that does make people a little more comfortable.

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You'll have your official job openings in and different things like that in there.

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But then also in our professional business, you know that that directory.

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A lot of them are licensed, insured, and they'll include that in their ad.

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Can you give us an example of a business that has advertised or has had a feature and how that's impacted their business or,

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you know, retail, whatever the setting may be during the month of March, which March was Women's History Month.

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So even we kind of took a different take in the news.

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So for our product that covers Fulton and izard counties,

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I'm I have an intern reporter and he did a series of the women in our Fulton County community that kind of,

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you know, make the world go round, basically, and just everyday life who are making history in our community.

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And our last feature was covering several women in retail in Fulton County.

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And she had acts. One of the owners that was featured in there, she actually reached out to our reporter and told him,

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I just am certain that it was because of this newspaper article.

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And it was and I'm not 100 percent sure if it was the day the paper came out or that, you know, brought around their close.

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But, you know, this this individual had experienced really great business that day or,

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you know, right around the time that the article came out and, you know,

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they were just certain that it was because that they were featured and it was great for us to see,

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you know, somebody really getting to benefit from that, because that's and that's our overall goal.

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I mean, we we are a community newspaper, so I want to shift topics.

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Let's talk a little bit about workforce.

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How does your organization connect people with job opportunities and maybe skill training that's happening in the area?

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You know, it's important for our local businesses who may have some of these job openings.

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To reach out to us to advertise that because that is something that people still they will pick up a paper just to look at the help wanted section,

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you know, an. Not necessarily picking up, but even if you go online and look at our paper for the classifieds and looking at help wanted,

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like the help wanted, I'd say would be, you know, one of the biggest things looked at.

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And then as far as skills training, you know,

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a lot of times if it is a free service that an organization is offering, we will cover that as a news story,

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because it's it's not only benefiting the business to have skilled workers, but it's benefiting the people of our community,

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you know, and ways of bettering themselves and improving their quality of life by getting a better job.

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So, you know, we put that we'll do those stories, you know, those news articles for free.

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We want to put that information out there. So if it's something that you're, you know, going to offer a training of some sort.

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Reach out to our news department and, you know, let us interview you and get the information about what it is you're going to be

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offering and put that out there for the community to see that it's happening.

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I'm hearing a common theme, and it's. If you don't know if what you have is newsworthy or relevant or something people will want to read about.

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Just reach out. Yes. We will be 100 percent honest.

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If it's if even if it's not something that we can do a front page news story about.

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We have our whole inside section of the paper that is still community news.

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So what are some of the trends you see as it relates to media consumption in small rural community?

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Because we are a small rural community.

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I feel like our print product will be around longer than what you might see print products in some bigger cities, bigger areas.

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Going back a few years ago when the Democrat Gazette, you know, started offering,

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you know, tablets because they weren't going to be offering their print for this area.

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We actually had, you know, some subscriptions from that because people want to hold the product in their hand.

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And so, you know, technology is great. So we are not knocking that in any way because we are able to utilize it.

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And it has made so many different aspects of our job, you know, easier and has improved it so much.

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But that is one thing. You know, that you see in larger areas are that your products are dwindling.

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Is there anything we haven't covered that you'd like to share before we go?

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A lot of people are really, you know, fearful for print products and things like that.

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And, you know, whatever the future may hold for a print product or news will always be here.

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And the need for community news will always be here.

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You know, we are going to keep doing it for as long as we can and as long as it is, you know, something that our community wants and needs.

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Kim, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I have learned quite a bit about area wide media, quite a few new things,

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and I'm sure our listeners did, too, especially business owners that tune into this every month.

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So thank you for being here with me. Well, we really appreciate that create bridges giving us this opportunity.

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So. For more information about this or any great Bridges podcast or more about Create Bridges, Arkansas, visit uaex.edu/createbridges.

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The Create Bridges Arkansas podcast is made possible by Wal-Mart Grant to the University of Arkansas System,

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Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension, Community, Professional and Economic Development Unit.

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And with the cooperation of Spring River Innovation Hub and White River Now productions.