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City Living Source News & Press
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| Tuesday, May 13, 2008 |
| Baltimore Business Journal. February 2008. |
| Direct mailers target city, Howard
by Julekha Dash
A Washington entrepreneur is expanding her portfolio in Baltimore.
Dawn Codd recently launched direct mail publications in Baltimore City and Howard County and hopes to double their distributions and frequencies.
The magazines, Baltimore City Living and Howard County Living, are sent in the mail to select ZIP codes and feature restaurant reviews, travel tips and other lifestyle topics. The articles are written by local residents and business owners.
In Baltimore, the magazine is distributed to Little Italy, Canton, Federal Hill, Mount Vernon and Fells Point. Codd sends the Howard County magazine to the central part of the county, including Columbia and Ellicott City, but would like to expand it to Howard's western area. Advertisers in Baltimore include the DogHouse Girls, a dog-sitting service, and the Canton Club Health and Fitness. Eateries Greystone Grill and the Rumor Mill Restaurant are among the Howard advertisers.
Started in 2005, the Washington magazine was launched with a $50,000 investment that came from personal money and a home-equity line of credit. Codd estimates that she will invest another $20,000 to double each magazine's distribution, currently at 31,000, and double its frequency to monthly. Codd recently launched a mobile site for the publication so readers can access it on their phones and personal digital assistants.
She admits that being the "new kid on the block" has been a challenge in launching the magazine in Greater Baltimore. But she anticipates getting more exposure by attending neighborhood festivals and association events to promote the publications.
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| Posted By: City Living Baltimore at 1:27 AM |
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| Tuesday, May 13, 2008 |
| City Living Makes Baltimore Debut. September 2007. |
| Baltimore, Maryland, August 20, 2007 — City Living Source - Baltimore, a direct mail magazine, will make its debut to over 30,000 homes in Federal Hill, Canton, Fells Point and Little Italy in September 2007.
City Living Source – Baltimore is a bi-monthly, direct mail magazine, with an online counterpart, providing city residents with valuable information for living in the city. Each issue will feature city happenings & area events, articles & interviews, dining reviews, business listings, contests & giveaways, and more. The goal of the publication is to be a resident’s one-stop source for city living. “We want to ensure Baltimore residents are taking full advantage of what their city has to offer, and encourage them to support and patronize their local businesses,” explained Dawn Debus-Codd, founder.
City Living Source was founded in Washington, DC in March 2005 out of residents’ need for a high quality resource conveniently delivered to their home free of charge.
“The popularity of the publication, and the demand for a city resource in other urban areas, led to our expansion in the Baltimore market,” stated Mrs. Debus - Codd. “We are excited to make our Baltimore debut – we have received an overwhelming amount of support from local businesses in the City.”
City Living Source – Baltimore, is the only direct-mail magazine serving Federal Hill, Canton, Fells Point and Little Italy. On September 1st, 29,000 magazines will be mailed to targeted households and an additional 1,000 copies distributed to high traffic retail locations. Additional features and information will be available online at www.citylivingbaltimore.com.
City Living Source is a direct mail magazine and website providing area residents valuable information for living in the city. City Living Source is currently in Washington, DC, Baltimore City and Howard County, and has plans for expansion in other cities.
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| Posted By: City Living Baltimore at 1:03 AM |
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| Tuesday, May 13, 2008 |
| Deliver Magazine. The Green Pages. April 2008. |
| For publisher Dawn Codd, making direct mail magazines more eco-friendly is the right thing to do for the planet — and for her business
By: Anne Stuart
Dawn Codd firmly believes that her three direct mail lifestyle magazines — all stuffed with special offers, restaurant reviews and events listings — bring plenty of value to the 97,000 readers in the upscale communities that the magazines target.
But the Washington, D.C.–based publisher also knows that, in an era of ever-increasing ecological awareness, some recipients may view direct mail publications as a waste of precious natural resources. For that reason — and because she and her partners personally support environmental causes — Codd wanted to reduce both that perception and the size of her company’s “footprint” on the earth. “Our beliefs are why we did what we did,” she says.
What they did was adopt an aggressively conservation-oriented approach to producing the trio of publications: City Living Source (citylivingsource.com), for households in D.C.; City Living Source-Baltimore (citylivingbaltimore.com), for similarly well-heeled readers in that city; and Howard County Living (howardliving.com), for residents of an affluent suburban area in central Maryland. (Each publication goes to about 32,000 readers six times a year.)
Beginning with their January 2008 issues, all three magazines have become significantly more eco-friendly. That’s a change that involves more than simply adding green content — although there’s more of that these days, too. Codd has focused on producing the magazines as cleanly and greenly as possible. “Everything about our business is about recycling and sustainability,” she says.
Specifically, the publications are printed only on Forest Stewardship Council–certified paper, meaning that it’s from timber grown and harvested according to the international forest-management association’s strict environmental standards. In addition, Codd recently switched to a new printer that uses soy-based ink, an alcohol-free press operation and a filmless, all-digital printing process that eliminates the need for silver and chemicals. “That’s all more healthful for readers and for the environment,” says Codd, who has promoted the printer’s techniques in print and online.
But what she hasn’t publicly emphasized is what those changes are costing her young business: an additional $1,000 per issue for each magazine. That’s an expense that she’s not passing on to advertisers until next year: “[Going green] was so important because of our personal beliefs that we were going to do it no matter what,” she says. “Our advertising rates will go up as our circulation goes up. And our circulation is growing pretty fast.”
That’s the case even though the publications specifically instruct readers how to get off the mailing list. Codd says that her company typically receives about one opt-out request per issue; in contrast, she says, “We’ve got people e-mailing every day asking to be put on the list.” She attributes that demand to each 24-page publication’s mix of local incentives, event listings and content that now includes advertiser advice on topics such as improving window insulation, buying organic fabrics and bicycling to work.
Codd’s publications also offer “virtual” incentives online, allowing readers to sign up to receive coupons and other offers via their cell phones. The incentives are specially formatted to fit on a mobile phone’s display screen; to redeem one, a consumer just shows the screen to a participating merchant. The process obviously eliminates the need to print, carry, redeem and recycle paper coupons.
Has anybody noticed one publisher’s efforts to tell the world that “green is good”? Codd says yes. “People have actually sent thank-you notes by e-mail, saying it’s great that we made the change,” she says. And any time a recipient of a direct mail piece personally thanks the marketer who sent it, that’s a pretty strong indicator tha |
| Posted By: City Living Baltimore at 1:00 AM |
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