Community Inspirational Newspaper

Community Inspirational Newspaper

These are usually called café or restaurant newsletters. There are two major companies that provide these. There is a good chance you have seen them in a coffee house or restaurant. They are usually an 11x14 inch, one page newspaper with advertising down both sides and content in the middle. The content is light and entertaining to read. It includes things like jokes, trivia, poetry and interesting stories. The providers of these papers contact restaurants, cafes, libraries, doctor’s offices and anywhere you can put a local free newspaper.  Both companies provide a weekly newspaper. 

The big companies produce a one size fits all publication. This is because they use the same or similar content in cities all over the world. I would suggest giving yours a more local flavor with local events, inspirational content about local hero’s, poetry from local authors, book reviews of local artists, news from local charities and listings for local art events. When you give it a local feel, any place that carries the other papers will surely take yours and maybe some who do not except the others. You can probably get copies distributed to local civic groups, the Chamber of Commerce and maybe even in local government buildings.

Unless you want to make it really profitable, I would suggest keeping it at a non-profit level of advertisements. This would mean having advertisements down one side of the page instead of both. This gives you more room for content. There is also the option of having ads down one side and across the bottom. 

Of course you want to promote your church in the process. If you want it to be acceptable in most places, then this cannot be the main focus of the newspaper. I would suggest a “sponsored by” under the name of the publication, a major ad spot and maybe a short word of encouragement from the pastor. 

While the big guys provide new copies each week, you have the option of making it a bi- weekly publication if providing content is too difficult to do weekly. 

The two major publications are Coffee News and Tidbits Weekly. I mention these as an example. Make sure your paper is significantly different than theirs. This means not just a name change but topic categories and various styling's. Of course if you want to make it easy, you can buy a franchise from either of these companies. If so, you would want to give your church the top advertising spot.