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A model of hyperlocal news and diversified delivery platforms

By Bob Sillick

Trib Total Media: A model of hyperlocal news and diversified delivery platforms

Just as the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers join to create the Ohio River and define the long history and importance of Pittsburgh to the founding and building of America, two of the leading business strategies for newspapers and news outlets – hyperlocal and diversification – define the success of Trib Total Media, one of western Pennsylvania’s primary sources of news, information and business services.

The Trib had to evolve from a typical metropolitan newspaper to integrate these two strategies. It adopted a fresh approach and was one of the first major metros in the country to become an alldigital hyperlocal news resource in the Pittsburgh region in December of 2016.

Today, Triblive is the most visited website in western Pennsylvania, averaging 3.9 million users and 26 million pageviews per month in 2022. It remains a free website based on the principle that news should be accessible to everyone regardless of location or socioeconomic status.

“Because of our rich tradition of newspaper ownership, Trib Total Media is a solid company that recognizes and supports the importance of community publications,” Jennifer Bertetto, president and CEO since 2015, said. “We publish a weekly and monthly portfolio of newspapers that are delivered or mailed to every home in the school districts in our coverage area.

“The people of Western Pennsylvania certainly want access to international, national and state news, but, for many, understanding the workings and decisions of local government agencies

and boards and their immediate impact on their lives, families and businesses are even more crucial. Our mission is to deliver that information to the citizens of Westmoreland County, the Alle-kiski Valley and Allegheny County.”

Trib Total Media’s portfolio of newspapers includes:

• Two daily newspapers delivered to

more than 30,000 households

• 11 weekly newspapers delivered to

more than 122,000 households

• Five monthly newspapers delivered to more than 60,000 households

Trib Total Media’s diversification strategy also includes Game Creek Holdings, which has invested in several companies with services useful to readers and all Pittsburgh residents, such as Evvnt, an online ticketing platform. Supporting very critical local needs is also part of the mission of

Game Creek Holdings. It partnered with other regional organizations to aid Clear Day Treatment Center, which provides opioid treatment. Those investments have also extended to international collaboration, partnering with Inven, a South Korean company, to launch invenglobal.com, an e-sports website.

THE STRATEGY OF HYPER-DIVERSIFICATION

Not only did Trib Total Media realize diversification was a necessary business strategy, but it also was a means to become even more hyperlocal.

This drive for diversification is what attracted Matt Miller, chief revenue officer, to join the company in 2018.

“It was refreshing to see a news outlet’s success wasn’t solely dependent on advertising and circulation revenue. Although we are very proud of what we’ve accomplished, diversification also presents challenges,” Miller said. “For example, our sales staff requires regular training because they now have so many tools and can offer customers so many advertising opportunities, including print media, digital media, specialty printing and complete direct mail services.”

A myriad of digital products and services are available to Trib advertisers as well as any businesses throughout its service area. These include display, programmatic streaming video and audio advertising, email marketing, search marketing, social media and reputation management, live chat, events and ticketing and website design.

To augment the delivery of those ad opportunities, 535media, a full-service digital agency, was launched in 2017. It has grown to a 10-person development team and a comprehensive palette of creative and fulfillment services and is a partner with other local agencies to offer media placement services.

The Trib’s Neighborhood News Network is another critical element of its hyperlocal mission. It includes 35 hyperlocal sites, with 17 companion platforms to its weekly and monthly newspaper portfolio. The other 18 sites specifically deliver news and information to the many news deserts and underserved communities in western Pennsylvania.

To power such a network requires advanced technology. With 49% ownership, The Trib has partnered with Mesearch to build a search widget and a “related content widget” for Triblive. Since its launch, the widget has increased visitors’ engagement time by 600%. It can also read more than 2,500 different emotions in the content and search and alert the news staff of any bias in its reporting.

“Because of this technology, the Network supports a badging system so that we can promote community journalism, including UGC (Usergenerated Content), community contributors and trusted contributors. We want everyone’s voice to be heard and to strengthen community bonds,” Bertetto said.

Bertetto added that the Neighborhood News Network will launch a refreshed design in October. In addition, Trib Total Media General Counsel and Mesearch CEO Joseph Lawrence will present Mesearch at the WAN-IFRA World Congress at the end of September.

The company acquired MSA Sports Network in 2017, which was primarily an audio network covering high school sports events. It became High School Sports Network and today features 20 to 30 Friday night football games through an affiliate network. It broadcasts more than 2,000 live sporting events annually, which includes 15 sports and more than 140 schools. It is also the official streaming partner of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL).

With Pennsylvania generally considered one of the top five states for high school football, sports are a major driver of the Triblive audience. Standout is a companion social site where “standout” high school athletes can create and submit content from their unique perspectives.

Trib Total Media’s diversified portfolio includes the Triblive Podcast Network, a separate print company, a promotional products division and its most recent acquisition in May 2022 of Shady Ave, a quarterly lifestyle magazine that has been serving the East End neighborhoods of Pittsburgh for 25 years.

EXPANDING DIGITAL AND TECH OPPORTUNITIES

Managing the infrastructure of Triblive and other digital platforms is a full-time job for Dave Fellabaum, executive director of IT and information services, and his team of six, which includes a network, a system, an AWS (Amazon Web Services) administrator and a dedicated fourperson IS team.

“Our mission is to make it easy for readers to find and consume the news they want and in the format they want. Having a system that enables reporters to enter their stories into one place and efficiently route them using a digitalfirst approach. It also extends to any applicable print product, which is the key to supporting all our products,” Fellabaum said.

“The daily challenges are the same as many IT teams — never allow the sites to go down, constant maintenance and performance improvements. What allows us to succeed is our dedicated and talented team. In addition to great people, having the proper mix of on-premise, cloud-hosting and Saas (Software as a Service) solutions allows us to mitigate as much risk as possible.”

Trib Total Media’s IS team’s to-do list is even more extensive. It manages all the data for printing and delivering the various newspapers in conjunction with the audience (circulation) department and all aspects of the advertising system. From custom interfaces with various partners to custom reports and applications, even the maintenance and processing of any advertising customers’ direct mail campaigns, the IS team is heavily involved.

Fellabaum and his team also manage and monitor the entire technology stack for the High School Sports Network. They work closely with the development team which created and operates the website.

IT ALL STARTS WITH JOURNALISTIC EXCELLENCE

Exceptional journalism and dedicated reporters are the foundation that delivers the news important to the individual communities in Trib Total Media’s coverage area, generating an ROI from its broad diversification.

Luis Fabregas is the executive editor of Trib Total Media, leading a team of approximately 80 reporters, editors, photojournalists, producers and copy editors.

“I’m convinced the key to our journalistic success is we embrace a culture of innovation. We encourage the editorial team to try new ideas, new ways of finding the essence of a story, to think outside the box,” Fabregas said.

“Our editorial team reports stories for both the print and digital platforms. We’ve learned the secret is becoming masters of planning. During our daily morning meeting, we decide what stories to deliver for the peak digital news periods. Then, we meet during the late afternoon to plan the content for the various print editions.”

Fabregas emphasized stories about local government, how taxpayers’ dollars are being spent to address local pandemic needs and similar topics are the primary focus of its hyperlocal reporting. The Trib understands that its readers also want to know what is occurring at the state level. It’s a member (with 70 other newspapers) of Spotlight PA, a nonprofit, investigative

reporting partnership of Pennsylvania news organizations headquartered in Harrisburg, the capital.

“We are a founding member of Spotlight PA, which also includes

The Philadelphia Inquirer; WITF, central Pennsylvania’s leading public media organization; Pennlive and Spotlight PA. Another 70 newspapers are members and can reproduce our content with proper attribution. One of our reporters is a regular contributor. Being an independent, nonpartisan newsroom, Spotlight PA provides us with reporting on statewide issues, such as voting rights, political campaigns and government oversight, which we couldn’t do in Pittsburgh,” Bertetto said.

Fabregas is also proud of the mix of experienced and emerging journalists in the newsroom. He says he is encouraged whenever he enters the newsroom and watches the younger journalists grow and advance their skills and how they energize the entire staff.

“We have a very proactive intern program at the Trib, with eight of them on the staff during the summer. We value their enthusiasm and often perform some ‘reverse mentoring,’ teaching our veteran journalists, editors and even myself about the digital world and how we can use the latest tools to improve our reporting,” Fabregas said.

AN INTERN’S STORY

To foster the next generation of journalists, the Trib offers two scholarship programs, Scholarship for Diversity in Media and the Jim Borden Memorial Scholarship. Recipients of both programs receive summer internships and possible full-time employment.

“We are trying to build excitement for our business with high school and college students and work to improve our diversity, inclusion and belonging with our company and communities,” Bertotto said.

Julia Felton was awarded the Borden scholarship in the summer of 2020, between her junior and senior years of college. She continued to work parttime at the Trib during fall 2020 and upon graduation in spring 2021 with a Journalism and Professional Writing degree from La Roche University in Mccandless, Pennsylvania.

“A project in my middle school English class about presidential elections created my interest in becoming a journalist. Although my high school didn’t have a student newspaper, I was an informal intern at the Washington (Co.) Observerreporter,” Felton said.

“A college professor first noticed the Borden scholarship and suggested it would be a good stepping stone to a journalism career. I applied during late 2019/early 2020 and was notified I was the recipient during May 2020.”

Felton said her internship started when the Trib newsroom had just re-opened with everyone returning from remote work, providing an even better opportunity to work directly with professional journalists. She was assigned a story on her very first day, and the other journalists were very supportive and shared insights she didn’t learn in college.

Her success with those general assignments as an intern resulted in her becoming the city hall reporter, covering the city council and the mayor’s office.

Felton is also paying forward, working with Trib interns in the summer of 2022 and taking them to city hall to observe how she covered her beat.

Through the leadership of the Trib board and Bertetto and the work of the entire team, Trib Total Media has proven that hyperlocal news delivery and broad diversification of platforms and channels is a successful business model for 21st-century news organizations.

“Although we follow industry news closely, we work hard to play our own game. We do not quickly follow trends but constantly evaluate our market and unique opportunities,” Bertetto said. “We are not content to adopt other companies’ ideas; instead, we strive to be an industry leader, helping to develop a path forward for all media companies, not just our own.”

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