Southern Community Newspapers launches niche publications

ALBANY — In an effort to expand readership and touch more people throughout Southwest Georgia, The Albany Herald has launched a series of free monthly tabloid products devoted to providing information in specific content areas.

Each month, The Herald produces Southwest Georgia Health Beat, Southwest Georgia Beat and its latest offering, Southwest Georgia Praise.

Albany Herald General Manager Ken Boler, who oversees the production of the tabloids in addition to managing The Herald, shared the company’s vision during a brief presentation Tuesday with members of the Dougherty County Rotary Club.

Boler said The Albany Herald, through its different products, is reaching more people today than it has since its inception.

“We’re touching more people now than we’ve touched in 100 years,” said Boler. “When you look at the print product and you look at albanyherald.com and you look at mobile (smart phones and tablets), I can stand before you with certainty and say that we’re reaching more people than we’ve ever reached.”

Boler said that in addition to typical daily circulation, which hits a weekly max every Wednesday with 142,000 readers in 11 counties, The Herald also draws an additional 338,000 mobile readers and 129,000 albanyherald.com readers each month.

“We’re reaching more people because it’s a fragmented audience,” Boler said. “You can look at your kids, your grand kids, your neighbors and everybody’s getting their news and information in different buckets and that’s okay. We just have an obligation to give it to them the way that they want it. If you want to read it in print, you can get it in print. If you want to read it on your smart phone, you can get it there.”

“It was important for us to look at pockets where we can get new readers that we don’t currently have,” Boler said.

The first attempt to do that was through production of Southwest Georgia Health Beat, which pulls together health-related information pertaining to health issues facing many Southwest Georgia residents.

“If you’re dealing with type one or type two diabetes, childhood obesity, breast cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, we follow the national health calendar for this product to be able to help you navigate and get some help from different arenas in Southwest Georgia,” said Boler. “We get content from the Mayo Clinic, Emory, The American Cancer Society, the CDC, MD Anderson, and we’re just about to ink a deal with Dr. Oz.”

The second niche product released was Southwest Georgia Beat, which is geared toward regional entertainment.

“Folks are always talking about there’s nothing to do in Albany, nothing to do in Southwest Georgia,” said Boler. “I’ve been here two years and you’ve bumped your head if you thinking there’s nothing to do here.”

Boler said that the Herald advertising and marketing staff, including Jennifer King, who handles content management for the monthly publications, works with various entities across Southwest Georgia, including different Convention and Visitors Bureaus, to put together a comprehensive picture of what’s going on throughout Southwest Georgia, from festivals, to plays, to concerts and more.

“We want this to be a conduit for everything to do around Southwest Georgia,” Boler said. “It’s all about entertainment.”

The third niche product, which was released Monday, is Southwest Georgia Praise. Boler said he believes this product has the potential to touch more readers than either of the other monthly publications.

“We’re proud of Southwest Georgia Beat, we’re proud of Southwest Georgia Health, but I can tell you that this is probably the best yet and we saved the best for last,” said Boler while King displayed the inaugural edition of Southwest Georgia Praise. “This is all about words of encouragement. This is all about the scripture of the month, the prayer of the month, how to navigate through some difficult times.”

Boler explained that Southwest Georgia Praise is a platform for the more than 2,000 churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship in Southwest Georgia to share important faith-based information with area residents.

“Southwest Georgia Praise is a product that when you put it down we want you to feel good about your experience,” Boler said. “We’re excited about it.”

Boler also shared that the company is in the process of creating a fourth monthly publication as well, one that will touch yet another niche market in the area. He did not release any specific information.

When discussing the newspaper and the new products, Boler stressed that the focus for The Albany Herald is Southwest Georgia as a whole, which is why the company is providing the monthly tabloids for free throughout the region including in places like Tifton, Valdosta, Bainbridge, Dawson, Sylvester, Americus and others.

“We claim Southwest Georgia,” said Boler. “Yeah we’re The Albany Herald but Albany’s the hub of Southwest Georgia so we’re taking that to task. We claim the footprint of Southwest Georgia.”

Currently content from each monthly tabloid can be accessed at www.albanyherald.com and all three will eventually have their own micro-websites.