Hi 👋

Today I'm trying something new.

In addition to publishing the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter every Thursday, I also host a semi-regular podcast called Small Press, Big Ideas about the business of local news.

I interview entrepreneurs, journalists, non-profit leaders, and other leaders in the space to get their take on what’s working, what isn’t, how they’re innovating, and how the local news industry can move toward a sustainable future.

In addition to the Thursday newsletter, I’ll now be sending out a post dedicated to the podcast on Mondays as well. It will include links to where you can listen as well as a story on the guest and the work they’re doing to advance local media.

Below you can read about and listen to this week’s guest, GoList founder Daniel Olson.

As always, I welcome any feedback on the newsletter, the podcast, or whatever’s on your mind! Just reply directly to this email or any other email going forward and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Have a great day!

-Paul

Small Press, Big Ideas

A podcast about the business of local news

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS

Ep. 20: Publisher Revenue Innovation: How GoList Empowers Local News and Keeps Ad Dollars Local

GoList is a national advertising platform that is attempting to become a default source for local information and turning local interest into publisher revenue.

One of the biggest challenges that local news publishers have faced over the past 20 years is a lack of recognizable local news coverage across geographies.

Think of it as the “McDonalds problem”: when people are traveling cross country, they’ll often default to McDonalds for their food choice. While it may not be the best tasting and definitely not the healthiest food in town, it’s recognizable and you know what you’re going to get.

This goes for local information as well. If you’re in a new location, most people are not likely to research the local publisher to find out what’s going on or where you’re going to eat (with the possible exception of this audience 😉).

While there are new models for publishers to access high quality information, there isn’t a great solution for everyday people to use.

This issue has led to the default option being the recognizable one: usually Google or some other Silicon Valley giant. And with the trust that they’ve earned as the default, uncounted billions of dollars have flowed away from local communities and into a handful of zip codes in San Francisco. This week’s guest on Small Press, Big Ideas is trying to reverse that.

Daniel Olson first saw glimpses of a solution years ago. Once upon a time Dan worked as a bell captain at a hotel in Durango, Colorado and was frequently asked for recommendations on what to do, where to eat, and so on. On a trip to neighboring Telluride, Dan saw that the town had a menu and activity guide that he realized could make his life a lot easier.

Although he didn’t realize it at the time, this would be the seed for his company GoList years later. GoListNews.com is a national advertising platform that is curated by local news. It’s essentially an attempt to create that recognizable platform, while turning the attention gained into local publisher revenue.

GoList is designed for local news publishers to capture business to consumer posts in their community. Once a news outlet signs up, local advertisers can register their business, add a photo and details, add events, and even send push notifications to phones through the GoList app. (Here’s the app: Apple – Android)

To consumers, the app functions like Google maps. They’ll see the familiar map of their area with highlighted pinpoints on the local businesses who’ve signed up. Once the business is clicked on, they can see information about including their address, events, images, videos, “about us”, and a call now button. Users can also toggle to “events” on the app to see what’s happening in town.

As opposed to incumbents like Google, GoList keeps the advertising revenue in the community. To be listed on the app, businesses enter their credit card information. The local publisher sets the monthly subscription rate (minimum $9.99) and keeps 70% of that, with the remaining 30% going to GoList.

Once GoList hits a critical mass of adoption, the app will work seamlessly nationwide. Consumers using the app in a new town while on vacation won’t have to think about the fact that they’re supporting the local paper in town, they’ll just search for restaurants and events out of habit.

The hardest part of making GoList work is hitting the scale required to make the app function over a large geographic area. Dan envisions a grassroots effort to bring that vision to life, starting with his community in St. Louis.

Dan encourages local publishing groups to sign up for the app, creating their own hub to grow from and siphon ad dollars from big tech back to main street.

On the podcast Dan and I dove into the functionality of the app and the user experiences for publishers, businesses, and consumers. We also talked more broadly on the future of local journalism and the challenges faced by local papers in the current digital advertising landscape.

We also went on a brief tangent about green chili season here in Western Colorado – IYKYK 🌶