Our-Hometown presents newspapers with easy, profitable way to compliment print editions

Kate Decker

Dec 1, 2022

In a Nov. 17 webinar, National Newspaper Association allied member Our-Hometown LLC presented newspapers with a potential revenue stream.

Our-Hometown CEO Matt Larson reported that nearly 23% of the US listens to a podcasts on a weekly basis.

Podcasting “allows for hands-free news consumption (while driving or otherwise multitasking), [offers] improved handicap accessibility, [and increases] brand awareness among young listeners.”

Larson further shared how Our-Hometown's CMS platform will upload PDFs into website articles. The system also has a podcast feature that can automatically voice articles and advertisements.

Larson shared examples of newspapers using the Our-Hometown website platform to produce podcasts — the Clarke County Democrat of Grove Hill, Alabama; the South Alabamian of Jackson, Alabama; Wilson County News of Floresville, Texas; Signals AZ of Prescott Valley, Arizona; and the Henrico Citizen of Richmond, Virginia.

Not only can a podcast build awareness and possibly increase print circulation, but newspapers can generate additional advertising revenue.

House-read ads are the most common format and are the easiest to create, Larson reports. The user will input the script and the system will voice it.

Signals AZ further runs a playlist banner advertisement, which is shown above.

Newspapers can also utilize affiliate links to generate revenue — for example, the podcasting platform Buzzsprout will pay for referrals through an individualized hyperlink.