Lakeland Now, a hyper-local start-up publication focusing on local events in Lakeland, Florida, found their niche market in socially connected millennials.
“I just wanted to create a place where people can easily discover local news online,” says Barry Friedman, founder of Lakeland Now. “Everyone was looking at their Facebook page to see what was happening in Lakeland and they were missing a lot of important events.”
Content for the digital-only resource combines traditional reporting, content curation, and aggregation techniques empowering Lakeland residents to become more involved in their community.
Research from the Media Insight Project, found that 85% of millennials say that keeping up with the news is somewhat important to them. In addition, the majority of millennials (69%) get news daily. Unlike Baby Boomers and Gen X, millennials do not set aside time to consume news such as reading the morning newspaper or watching the evening news. Instead, news is consumed throughout their day. Thanks to social media, millennials have access to a variety of sources, both traditional and nontraditional, 24-hours a day.
Pushing snackable bites of hyper-local content out to social media, Barry uses a combination of original reporting, social media content from local sources, as well as the #lkld hashtag that many organizations use to promote their events on social media. Today, the largest segment of readers is the much sought after 18 – 34 year olds.
Want to find out how Lakeland Now leverages social media to attract millennials? Click to register and download the lkldnow case study.