Media innovation helps Swansea small guys thrive

It's always worth keeping your eyes open for bright initiatives in the Swansea Bay media.
Even the small guys can provide big help for business across the region.
Restaurants and pubs should, therefore, be interested in a little something happening in the Community Magazine stable.
Now nobody would ever say this low-tech family of publications is going to win awards for design ... but it certainly reaches the parts few others manage.
At the last count this team was printing 112,000 copies of its geographically targeted editions in places such as the Neath Valley, Port Talbot, eastern Carmarthenshire and parts of Swansea.
The latest monthly copy of SKD (that's Sketty, Killay, Dunvant to the uninitiated) dropped through the Media Master door in the past couple of days.

It's the usual mix of small ads for everyone from Ciss (the Cancer Information and Support Network) to the Swansea Health and Wellbeing Clinic.
Editorially, there's an eclectic mix encompassing police community meetings, an interview with Swans skipper Gary Monk and a what's on page featuring local rugby, an under-5s club and a singing group.
Usefully, it has also got the new offer illustrated on the right. They're looking for 12 restaurants to sign up for ads in all 12 editions over the next 12 months. The deal comes with a guarantee of an eating out review of each restaurant.
For more details about this and how anywhere that serves food can benefit from publicity in the Swansea Bay media just give me a nudge on 07758 745240.

Cambridgeshire media tips for Swansea Bay

There's much fresh thinking and innovation on the Swansea Bay media circuit these days.
Recession, technology and web evolution are among the most influential factors.
It means we have small fellas such as the Pontardawe-based Community Magazines thriving alongside big players such as BBC Wales.
If you don't know the Swansea area's Community Magazines, by the way, they have local editions for communities as diverse as Brynaman, Glynneath, Taibach and Mumbles and circulate an impressive 113,000.
The industry changes mean that I'll make every effort to clock 440+ miles one Tuesday in May to go to Cambridgeshire and back.
The UK’s first Specialist Media Show - http://www.thespecialistmediashow.com/ - will have conference sessions, an exhibition and workshops for media pro's and others. It'll attract editors, ad pro's and marketing managers plus people from many supply businesses.
Show organisers have also created the Specialist Media Pioneer Awards, recognising innovation and entrepreneurial thinking.
They say: "Whilst newspapers and mass media are struggling to find new business models, independent specialist media are applying innovation and entrepreneurial thinking."
Magazine Athletics Weekly, for instance, set the pace by selling digital editions on an iPhone app, Cricket World magazine has a website with more than 1.1 million unique users and live TV webcasting, and http://www.thefrenchpaper.com/ provides a news service for ex-pats in France.
Show figurehead Carolyn Morgan said: "Independents are prepared to innovate and experiment with all the new media channels, and we want to celebrate that and inspire others.
"The challenge for content creators is to deliver in ever more useful and valuable ways, whether through digital, mobile, events or print."
That goes for the Swansea Bay media too. If anybody wishes to join me on a Peterborough adventure, just give me a shout on 07758 745240.

• The Specialist Media Show, Exec, Peterborough, 25 May, contact carolyn@thespecialistmediashow.com