Is an immigrant or cultural community newsletter a good local media business?

This is a theory more than a proven practice for me. But I'm very bullish on it.

"If I lived in Japan and somebody launched a, a newsletter for Texans who live in Japan, you better believe I'd read every word of that damn thing."

Why would engagement be so high?

Because it's them. People in a tight community are far more connected to it than a random person in Leander is to a general local brand. Our readers love our newsletters, but they aren't quoting them to each other. I guarantee you an Indian newsletter in my county would get read word for word, because readers would be so invested in it.

Isn't someone already doing this?

Yes, just not the modern way. At a local media conference I went to, I'd guess 80 to 90 percent of the people I met ran some kind of community-plus-location outlet. Almost all of them knew print and WordPress, and that's it. Crappy WordPress websites. No real newsletter, no Instagram, no Meta ads.

Almost any major immigrant community in a big city has a media brand. LA has around 400,000 Vietnamese people, for example. But that media is nearly all legacy print and radio. You could be the first to do newsletters, Meta ads and Instagram for one of these communities.

Where does it work best?

Big metros. In my county there are so many people from India that there's an Indian restaurant on every corner. Why is there not a Williamson County Indian media brand? Same idea for Vietnamese in LA, or Somalis in Minnesota.

Don't niche down twice. A suburb is already a niche of the metro, so a community brand for one suburb gets too small. Do it across the whole metro.

Who should run it?

Someone from the community. Ideally that's a local business owner from that community who wants to be the face of the brand, because the audience helps their business too. Finding that person is the missing piece.

What are the two ways to play it?

1. Launch one. Partner with someone who has the community ties, and run it under one metro umbrella brand. Under a single metro brand you could have five, six or seven vertical brands plus location brands.
2. Help the ones that exist. Sell newsletter know-how to existing community outlets, as consulting or done-for-you.

It's one of several niches I think a bigger city can support next to a general brand: moms, dads, families, wellness, B2B and immigrant communities. In any city over about 75,000 people, I can picture around eight. Run each idea through the money test in how I choose a newsletter niche before you commit.