Michele's List
Building blocks in the emerging local news ecosystem

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Statistics
Unique monthly visitors

33,000
E-newsletter

  • Yes, a single newsletter
E-newsletter subscribers

10,000
Facebook likes

11,591
Facebook followers

11,970
Twitter followers

1,520
Instagram followers

5,663
Revenue

  • $251,000 - $500,000
Primary revenue source(s)

  • Local advertising (including web and e-newsletter ads)
Ad products

  • Traditional Web display advertising sold directly by your organization
Paywall

  • No
Distribution

  • Direct to web/mobile
Date of most recent publisher update

05/05/2019
Last Publisher Update

  • 2019-05-18 19:29:55 UTC
Stu News Laguna
California
Stu News Laguna

Stu News Laguna is a top news source in Laguna Beach, California. It provides a mix of city, police, and community news - putting out new editions twice a week and breaking news when it happens. Stu News Newport is a sister site. Revenue: Advertising

Who is in charge?

Shaena Stabler

Job title

Owner

City

Laguna Beach

State

CA

Zip code

92651

Year launched

2009

Tax status

  • LLC

Geographic scope

  • Small city or town

Population of coverage area

24,000

Scope of coverage

  • General news or a number of topics that are not necessarily closely related to each other

Primary focus

  • Current news and events

Topics of coverage

  • Business in coverage area
  • Crime & justice
  • Education & schools
  • Events in coverage area
  • Government

Watchdog journalism?

  • Yes, occasional

Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/StuNewsLaguna

Site Twitter handle

@stunewslaguna

Effective engagement practice

50% of traffic comes from our email blasts with headlines, which we publish 2x weekly with our new editions - we have an open/click through rate of around 60%; 25% of traffic comes from Facebook links posted on our page; additional 25% comes from referral traffic and organic searches. We have 33,000 unique readers monthly, which is 50% growth since this time last year. Our goal is to continue to grow this number, increase the time on site, etc.

Revenue challenges

I am the only one that sells for us but I'm also the editor, which consumes most of my time. I wish I had more time to sell and could focus 70% of my time on sales vs. 30% on editorial, with most of that time being spent on macro/editorial management vs. micro.