Sara Fischer: Newspaper entrepreneur builds Jersey Shore news empire

This piece is by WWSG exclusive thought leader, Sara Fischer.

Veteran newspaper banker and media operator James McDonald has launched a new company to consolidate hyper-local and regional news sites across Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore.

Why it matters: Hyper-local news has been heavily impacted by the fall of newspapers. McDonald thinks there’s a viable business model for hyper-local sites if they’re tied to coverage from a broader region or city.

State of play: With the help of a few outside investors and his own money, McDonald’s firm Access Global has acquired seven hyper-local sites and launched eight of his own in Philadelphia and along the surrounding Jersey Shore towns over the past year.

• Acquired sites include Breaking AC, a city news site for Atlantic City; North Penn Now; OCNJDaily.com serving Ocean City; Downbeach.com serving Margate and Ventnor; SeaIsleNews.com; and Somerspoint.com.
• He also acquired a local newsletter serving Ocean City called Walking the Boards that will be folded into OCNJ Daily.
• Launched sites include Perk Valley Now, Central Bucks Now, and Wissahickon Now, which were all named after local school districts in the Philly region.
• Access Global also launched Philly Daily, a newsletter and website serving the Philadelphia market, and On Pattison, a local Philly sports site.

How it works: Most acquisition deals were done via a combination of cash and equity, McDonald said. The acquired sites are small, only employing one or two people to write and distribute local stories.

• The content is mostly focused on breaking news, local entertainment and sports.
• All sites will remain free. They will be funded by a mix of advertising and tech-enabled sales across local ticketing and real estate.
• While the company has brought on some of the writers from its acquired publications full time, it also relies on contractors.

The big picture: Philanthropists have thrown big dollars at new local news outlets across the country. To date, most have been targeted toward bigger local cities that have lost their flagship newspapers, like Cleveland or Houston, but there’s more investment starting to pour into hyper-local news.

• The Texas Tribune, for example, plans to launch a slate of hyper-local newsrooms to places like Waco.

What’s next: McDonald says October will be the company’s first profitable month. He plans to launch three more sites this month serving Horsham Township and Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, as well as Cape May, New Jersey.