Keith Pepper has a handy reminder of his goal with Rough Draft Atlanta: a Post-It note on his computer that reads simply “meaningful, not massive.”

That’s the approach Keith has taken with Rough Draft Atlanta, a local news business focused on well-heeled areas of the Atlanta area that Keith has built after buying a clutch of community newspapers in 2020. Keith has mostly worked on the tech side of media his entire career, but he felt the pull to local news for the next phase of his career. We discuss how Rough Draft relies on direct mail of all things as a critical and reliable distribution channel, why print still far outpaces digital in monetization of local, and making tough choices in the balance of hard news and service journalism that often gets a bad wrap but is critical utility for local news. 

This episode is sponsored by Piano. Piano’s Digital Revenue Optimization solution helps digital services grow revenue by better understanding and influencing their customers’ behavior. Piano unifies analytics, segmentation, and commercial personalization in one AI-driven application, enabling sites and apps to efficiently maximize the value of every user visit. For more information, visit piano.io.

On Oct 2, I'll be speaking at the Piano Academy in Paris. My talk will focus on "things that won't change" in the AI era. Find out more about the Piano Academy.