Community Impact
Community Impact[1] is a news organization founded and privately owned by John & Jennifer Garrett, serving as the current Chief Executive Officer and Chief Facility Management Officer, respectively. Community Impact’s niche in the industry is localized news delivered for free to residents, primarily based on community advertising support with a small amount of monthly, optional giving from readers through CI’s Patron Program.[2] Products include monthly newspapers delivered through USPS mail and daily email newsletters[3] to opt-in inboxes. As of 2023, Community Impact delivers to over 35 markets, covering 2.5 million mailboxes in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio metros.
History
In September 2005, Community Impact Newspaper launched its first edition in Round Rock and Pflugerville, Texas. Six employees created the first newspaper in the game room of John and Jennifer Garrett’s house. Garrett was a former Advertising Director of the Austin Business Journal.
In its first five years, Community Impact Newspaper added 60 employees and launched 10 community newspapers, including an expansion to the Houston metro in September 2009.[4] In 2010, a period of heavy layoffs at newspapers and throughout the legacy media industry, Community Impact Newspaper experienced growth,[5] branding the idea that "Print Ain't Dead."[6] After expanding into the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area in March 2011, the media company was featured by Editor & Publisher, CISION[7] and CultureMap Austin.[8]
From 2011-2016, Community Impact Newspaper was named to Inc. Magazine's top 500 fastest-growing companies for seven consecutive years.
In late 2012, Community Impact Newspaper announced plans to build a $2.5 million headquarters in Pflugerville, TX,[9] and the 16,000-square-foot office was completed in December 2013. John Garrett was featured in Forbes shortly after the announcement.[10]
In June 2015, Community Impact Newspaper announced it would build a $10 million printing facility next to its headquarters to begin printing all newspaper editions starting in 2016.[11][12] Since then, Community Impact Printing has added on outside printing customers throughout the U.S.
In 2018, Community Impact Newspaper announced its first launch outside of Texas into Phoenix, Arizona, debuting in Gilbert and then growing into Chandler.[13] In 2019, Community Impact Newspaper launched in the Franklin & Brentwood communities outside of Nashville, Tennessee.
Early March 2020, Community Impact Newspaper launched in the Alpharetta & Milton communities outside of Atlanta, Georgia. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the market closed soon after.
In 2022, Community Impact Newspaper decided to focus solely on Texas as the 9th largest economy in the world, rebranding as Community Impact.[14] They removed “newspaper” from their name, changed their logo and updated their mission statement as a symbol of their “flywheel” strategy, which aims to develop digital products on par with print and recognize the significance of both for readers. That same year, Community Impact started building a Houston Headquarters office in the Jersey Village community, with all staff celebrating the move in at an open house the next April.
As of 2023, the company employs 200 “Impacters” and has won many industry awards, with leadership often serving as event presenters and moderators. In April 2023, Texas Monthly published a feature profile on John Garrett and Community Impact, giving details on the thriving business given the struggling print and news industries.[15]
References
- ↑ "Community Impact". Community Impact. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "Become a Community Patron". Community Impact Newspaper. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "Community Impact Newspaper". communityimpact.com. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "Wayback Machine" (PDF). 2013-02-21. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-02-21. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "The Fastest-Growing Media Companies in America". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "Print ain't dead: How an ad-man-turned publisher is building a local news empire profitably in Texas". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "Community Impact Newspaper: success in print - Vuelio". 2013-02-26. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ Benz, Kevin. "Making local news relevant: Community Impact brings the local paper back fromthe dead - CultureMap Austin". austin.culturemap.com. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "Community Impact Newspaper to build new campus in Pflugerville". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ Helman, Christopher. "Breaking: A Local Newspaper Chain That's Actually Making Good Money". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "$10M printing facility to fuel growth for Community Impact". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ Thomas, Scott (2015-06-19). "Local newspaper owner expands to printing operation". Community Impact. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ Staff, Community Impact (2018-05-29). "Community Impact Newspaper will launch in Phoenix Metro area; finds first home in Town of Gilbert in September 2018". Community Impact. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ staff, Community Impact (2022-09-29). "Beloved print company Community Impact announces rebrand, newsroom expansion". Community Impact. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
- ↑ Foster, Tom (2023-03-07). "How Community Impact Built an Oasis in the News Desert". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
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