start a newspaper

I would like to Start a small Christain Newspaper. This has caught my attention that their are no Christain Newspaper around in my area
I have no experience in starting. Mydaugther has layout experience that she worked for in the early late 90’s. I like to know where to start. Should I start off making it a weekly or monthly? and what’s the possible start up cost. of course this will be home-based.

i love journalism i like to read newspapers so i know i will love to make one

In 2004 my partner and I launched the world’s first tabloid to be written entirely by our readers, circulating 35 000 copies monthly – see http://www.theword.com.au. Of course it took us a good 6-months before we gained the necessary critical mass and interest from our community to contribute. Don’t count on friends and family for this one, even the loudest and most opinionated shy away from a few hundred words and deadlines! So, I sold ads, wrote articles and laid out.
We completely lost our social lives and any sense of normality during those years, working 7-day weeks and often into the early morning hours every day. It was the hardest slog of my life, and I’ve worked in demanding jobs, from child protection officer to business developer in Nepal and a couple of corporate experiments.
The good news is that as we got the formulaes right we took a step back and drew up all the mechanics of how we did business. I took my plans to some angel investors and I have spent the last 2-years working with programmers and other publishers to build what I believe is the world’s best out-of-the-box solution for would-be and professional publishers of newspapers and magazines – http://www.ezymedia.com I would have loved something like this when I started!
I wish everyone the absolute best in this noble endeavour and would be happy to answer any questions.

I would like to start a newspaper but would like to know where to find grants to fund the paper?

This was one of my main goals last year – and I’m happy to say that
actually achieved it! A small, tabloid sized not-for-profit community newspaper. I emphasize the word ‘start’ however, because
I only managed to finish and distribute two issues…. Still, it was fun and educational!

I’ve never been involved in a publication before, so I’m trying to figure out what I need to do, what positions I need to fill. I’m aiming right now at the Asian community on campus, but hope by the end of the year that I can create an alliance with the other minority groups/organizations on campus to create a publication geared toward all minorities.

I decided to work with partners because i felt couldn’t do it alone. We chose to start it online first to get to know the churches and community. That way we will have traffic and will bring in Advertisers. Once we are up and running and making a profit we will get it printed. Check it out at www.insp-times.com

no one in my neighborhood submitted any news. None. I asked two people to write articles and they did not write them. Really, it’s very sad. People in this neighborhood keep wondering why they are robbed on a continuous basis and part of the reason is because people don’t know each other. They don’t really knows who lives in this neighborhood, which cars are not suppose to be in this neighborhood, etc. The purpose of the neighborhood newspaper was to build a sense of community. I wanted people to get to know each other. Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that people do not want to build a sense of community.

So people don’t seem to be excited about my newspaper idea. I asked my neighbor to write a story about birds in this area. He said, “I’ll think about it.” I asked my husband to write a story about the importance of tire pressure and he said, “Huh? Why?” Am I going to have to “generate” news for the first few issues?? Arghhh….. I could do a story on “Dogs of the Neighborhood”. Everybody likes dogs.

Okay…so yesterday I decided to “Just Do It!”

A few weeks ago I published and distrubuted “Neighborhood Alert” regarding crime in our area. But now, I want to start a REAL neighborhood newsletter with GOOD news – people getting married, couples having kids, daughters graduating from college, favorite recipes, older men retiring from 35 years at GE, etc.

Yesterday I drew up a flyer regarding the upcoming neighborhood newsletter and I will distribute it today. (My goal is to get it published by July.) The flyer outlined the reason for the newsletter (fostering a sense of community) and gave people outlines for submitting news. (Guidelines for a news item =100 words or less, tactful, decent and to the point.)

Hopefully, people will be willing to submit news. There has been so much crime in this area that I’m afraid of people taking on a bunker-like “I don’t trust anybody” attitude. I suspect that the first few issues of The Neighborhood Newsletter will be tough sledding and I will have to be patient about people opening up to others. Right now, I’m thinking that the newsletter will be quarterly but that may change.

Wish me luck everybody!