Transforming Local Media with Fractional Services

Kyle Rickhoff and Bob Rose bring their years of experience in the local news industry to unlock the power of fractional services for local publishers.

This week on the Small Press, Big Ideas podcast I was joined by the team at AlignSimple, a fractional service provider that works with local news publishers.

Kyle Rickhoff and Bob Rose both have deep backgrounds in journalism – Bob actually remembers delivering newspapers with his father during US moon landing. They’ve leveraged this experience to help small to medium publishers and broadcasters utilize resources that would have otherwise been unattainable.

Fractional services is a term that is bounced around more and more these days, and essentially it means professional services that are offered on a part-time or project basis, rather than full-time employment.

Instead of hiring a full time HR professional or CMO, the fractional option gives you access to this kind of expertise at a fraction of the cost and time commitment.

AlignSimple serves as general contractor – publishers may come on for help in one area, and as their needs evolve so does AlignSimple’s scope. Publishers can add or subtract services, and as Bob and Kyle have that deep expertise in the industry they are uniquely positioned to suggest possible next steps from what they’ve seen before.

For delivery of services, AlignSimple works with dozens of experts that they connect local media publishers with in areas such as social media, newsletters, SEO, design, production, data, and more.

Publishers working with AlignSimple start with six month digital alignment to find the fit for their organization. In addition to learning about the organization, this also provides a cadence for the relationship and builds trust.

Bob frequently runs ongoing monthly data reviews in which he can add flavor to the data he’s seeing and make recommendations. In our conversation he recalls one publisher who remarked “this is what I was looking for all along”. In addition to making strategic suggestions for publishers, Kyle and Bob can also help validate publishers gut feelings.

One challenge they’ve seen, especially with founder-led organizations, is that letting go of being fully in the weeds on every aspect of the business can be challenging for local media companies who are deeply committed to the social mission

This goes back to the six month alignment period. Part of the nuance is coaching local media leaders to realize they’re on the same team and help them make the leap from bootstrapping to a business owner role. Part of this is showing the numbers and also providing context of what the numbers mean to their business.

Another benefit for local media orgs who work with AlignSimple is their experience with nearly every powerful software platform being used by publishers such as Social News Desk, BLOX, Newspack, and more. They point out that smaller publishers are often not accessing the full potential of theses platforms as they don’t have the human capital to invest in learning them.

When I asked what the most in demand service AlignSimple was asked for help with form publishers, Bob pointed out that analytics was near the top of the list because everything needs to be measured.

Another in demand service offering for local media publishers is SEO. It’s important but still somewhat of a black box to many. Another top contender in 2024 is newsletters. Bob points out that he’ll even push back here with publishers who don’t think newsletters are a fit for their organization, the opportunity is that great.

Have a listen to the full podcast episode to hear more about all of this and more about the origins of AlignSimple wherever you get your podcasts.