Q. How would you characterize Our Weekly and your readers? 

A. Our Weekly is a free weekly newspaper circulated in the predominantly black neighborhoods throughout South Los Angeles, reaching the most affluent audience in the nation. 

Q. What was the motivation behind the development of Our Weekly and how is it different from other African-American Publications? 

A. Our Weekly was created and developed to target an underserved segment of the community when it comes to news sources. African Americans receive news from so many fragmented sources including the LA Times, local community newspapers and the internet. Most of these sources only scratch the service when it comes to stories pertaining to African Americans and our communities. We take pride in our editorial coverage, and work hard to bring compelling and relevant news to our readers. We wanted to be a one stop shop that addresses the concerns of our people and communities. 

Q. In fifteen words or less describe your Publisher and CEO Natalie Cole. 

A. She is a free thinking, cutting edge individual. 

Q. The circulation of Our Weekly is 50,000 printed papers. What strategies are in place to grow circulation within the next few years? 

A. Ultimately, it was our goal to double our distribution within the first year. We have identified areas where the African American population is strong and have plans to slowly increase our distribution in those areas. Hopefully by the top of 2008, we will be in a position to increase to a minimum of 100,000. 

Q. Our Weekly has established a home delivery distribution system to better reach its readers. Have you found this strategy successful in creating more recognition for Our Weekly than other distribution models? 

A. Yes, what we have found is that with this strategy, we have built a loyal readership. If by chance a home is missed from receiving the newspaper, we are informed. We receive calls on a daily basis asking why we are not in certain areas. As it stands, we recognize that we are not getting enough newspapers out there weekly. In addition, we strategically identified key rack distribution points throughout greater LA where we find that traffic is high and newspapers are moved quickly.  

Q. What challenges have you faced as a new paper securing national advertising? 

A. Over the years national advertising, especially for African American newspapers, has decreased. Our biggest challenge initially was that we were not audited. Fortunately, within six months we became audited. Some other challenges are the newness of the newspaper, limited or no incremental revenue dollars to spend, have a comfort zone of using the same publications and understanding that we are currently the largest audited African American newspaper in this market.  

Q. How do you feel advertiser response has been overall for Our Weekly? 

A. We started building a portfolio of testimonials from the initial time of launch. What we have found is that we have built a strong base of loyal advertisers primarily the mom and pop businesses. A great portion of these advertisers have been with us from day one. 

Q. What strategy has Our Weekly implemented to attract more advertisers to an overlooked market? 

A. Our goal is to get involved and stay involved. Our Weekly is very active in the community. You will find someone from our staff attending the majority of the functions and events that takes place in the city. We also send out a weekly newsletter. We have a strong web site presence that is highly promoted in all collateral and throughout the newspaper. We are developing marketing strategies that will also include radio advertising with several local radio stations. Finally, making sure that our sales representatives are in the faces of these customers only a daily basis. 

Q. What amount of interest has been placed on the development of Our Weekly’s web site OurWeekly.com?  

A. A lot of emphasis has been placed on our web site. First and foremost it is updated weekly with relevant news. News is archived in the event someone needs to go back to look for a particular story and there are advertising opportunities that are affordable for advertisers who can not pay the regular print rates but still would like to attract customers. The web site sets us apart from our competition. 

Q. How much of an impact do you feel the site has for your readers? 

A. Because everyone’s schedule is so chaotic these days and sometimes not having the newspaper right in front of you, it is easy to go directly to the web site and get up-to-date news. We have built a loyal customer base who receives our newsletter weekly. 

Q. What have been the differences in running an African American publication in comparison to the major daily you were at previously? 

A. The newspapers we’ve worked for prior were all established companies which have been around forever. The process is not as difficult because there were resources available, unlimited funding in some cases, a loyal advertising base, strong readership, and name branding and recognition. Since we are a start-up, we have had to build from scratch which is much more difficult. In addition, there were opportunities to drive revenue and build account base daily versus once a week. The sales process seems much more of a challenge for African American publications versus general market newspapers.

Q. What changes can we expect from Our Weekly in the near future? 

A. There are so many plans we have in the making for Our Weekly. It is our ultimate goal to grow the newspaper to a minimum of 60 pages weekly, increase our distribution by the top of 2008, and include more features in the newspaper that we have held back on until the financial picture is much stronger. Currently, it is Our Weekly Los Angeles. Our goal is to identify other areas within Southern California and develop different Our Weekly editions. We are very proud of our success thus far; this is only the beginning of many, many great things to come.