Distribution and Readership

PRINT DISTRIBUTION METHOD

SWFBT is welcomed in to the business: we have lobby table and front desk distribution. Most distribution points receive 5-10 copies. Some, like some restaurants or hotels, require bigger drops. We pick up and track our returns. The newspaper is delivered in to the business during regular business hours.

READERSHIP/TARGET AUDIENCE

In terms of readers in-print and online, SWFBT targets the 1) sole proprietor, 2) the husband/wife businesses that work with a small staff and/or subcontractors and 3) the operations or sales manager of larger companies. We serve the business owner/operator who is in the field, keeping their pulse on the local marketplace. The goal is for every reader to get at least one thing out of the publication/website that the person can immediately apply to that person’s business. The readership number we use is the national readership number used by B2B publications with distribution systems similar to ours: 4 readers per copy. So we are currently averaging almost 30,000 readers per issue.

ADDITIONAL REACH

Others use SWFBT in-print and online as a business tool. For instance, local commercial realtors use it to identify businesses who might need commercial real estate services. Salespeople use it to target potential business clients and some salespeople and/or business owners give it to their business clients as a value-added marketing tool. Others use it to send say, congratulatory notes to a client/colleague. One gentleman shared with me that a business owner read his guest column in the newspaper and proceeded to recruit him to go to work for him—in a very high-paying job. One guest columnist who happens to be a business broker said that he got a call from a very high-tech company in our area seeking his services. Other media have contacted some guest columnists to serve as experts in their fields. Our news is sometimes picked up by other media and has gone viral on social media. So the audience is definitely tiered on several levels.