Publishing a newspaper comes with unique challenges and pressure to put out the perfect product, especially when you are talking about taking on a 123-year-old institution like The Cleveland Citizen. Trust us.
Last year, the Executive Board of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council voted to combine The Cleveland Citizen and its sister publication, The Ohio Labor Citizen, into one monthly, full-color tabloid: The Labor Citizen. We were contracted to handle all aspects of the publication: collecting timely information from subscribing unions, producing news content, seeking out interested advertisers for the highly specific niche market, and fully designing each edition.
In addition to timely news on construction projects and issues both on a regional and national level, The Labor Citizen provides a vital membership engagement tool for subscribing unions to reach their entire membership at one time with important updates, events, and training opportunities specific to their Local.
We started publication in June 2013 with a printed circulation of 15,770, which we soon realized included hundreds of out-of-date addresses provided from subscribing Locals. This resulted in hundreds of copies of our first two or three editions being returned by the U.S. Post Office.
What started as a bit of headache instead turned into an added benefit that we had not foreseen; we were able to provide subscribing Locals the feedback they needed to keep an accurate mailing list of their own members.
Another particular challenge we faced when becoming more immersed in the new (to us) product was re-establishing our initial print schedule in order to properly cover both Labor Day activities and November elections. While everyone involved had previous print production experience, we had to learn to adjust our preconceived plan in order to truly benefit the readers.
Now, at the one-year mark, The Labor Citizen has an average monthly circulation above 16,500, with more growth expected soon. We still get positive feedback on a regular basis about the publication’s redesign and our approach to news that is specifically focused on the union construction building trades. We are gaining interested readers by improving the quality of the product each month and look forward to continuing to do so for a long time to come.
LaborTools powered by BMA Media Group has years of experience helping unions nationwide spread their message in innovative and time-sensitive ways to keep their members working towards a common goal. From texting campaigns to monthly reports in the The Labor Citizen, LaborTools can ensure that all of your members are kept up-to-date on your union’s news, events and campaigns and keep them as invested in your union as your officers. Contact us to help you get started.
LaborTools powered by BMA Media Group is used to help strengthen our union client’s organizations. From working with unions from the local level to the international, with training funds and labor management partnerships, as well as other labor organizations, BMA has experience with organizations of all sizes. We are here to create and implement unique and customized marketing campaigns for our clients.
At BMA, we offer services in the following categories: union event services (from writing the history of your union to executing the logistics of an event,) video production, website design, union marketing campaigns, print and broadcast advertising, social media management, development of print materials, building trades industry education, labor public relations and crisis management, union merchandise, as well as strategic branding and marketing of union organizations.
BMA Media Group is a Union Building Trades Contractor, signatory with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 673 and International Union of Painters and Allied Trades DC 6 / Sign Display and Allied Trades Local 639. BMA Media Group is also signatory with AFTRA and an affiliate contractor of the Cleveland Chapter of NECA.
