100 days to clarity

Jen Gennaro
Journalism Innovation
3 min readJul 3, 2023
A mashup of Porch & Parish events and happenings in recent months

I, along with my husband, started a community magazine called Porch & Parish two years ago. My initial intent was to use it as an outlet to advertise my real estate listings for myself and my agents. After the first issue came out, we realized we were on to something much bigger.

We live in a small rural Louisiana town, about 20 minutes north of the capital of Baton Rouge. At the time we started P&P, the main news source for our town was the Facebook Rants & Raves page, and it was heavy on the rants.

The community immediately rallied around the publication, and the mission became clear — to highlight excellent living and engaging stories. To showcase the diversity in this town, amplify voices, create a platform where everyone feels welcome and included. To let people know that we’re more than just the top-ranked school district in the state. And to give high school and college graduates a reason to stay and make a career here, or move back and start a family, a business, a life in this town that’s growing — in population, amenities, diversity, culture, arts, tech and more.

Thanks to the support of many local businesses in town, we’ve been able to cover the cost of print through the sale of ads in the quarterly publication. But with graphic designers, freelancers and the general cost of running an office, I needed to find a way to profitability to keep the train moving in between print issues. So, one night, I went down the rabbit hole of researching Buzzfeed’s business model. Somehow, it led me to “entrepreneurial journalism” and the EJCP course. It was so specific to my needs, exactly what I was seeking, and I was overjoyed to be accepted into the Spring 2023 cohort.

Through the exercises, speakers and deliverables, I emerged from the program with a very clear understanding of the path forward. One of the key takeaways for me is that P&P serves two audiences and solves two problems:

  1. the community.

There’s an information gap in Zachary. The information on events, schools and everything else is disseminated piecemeal from about half a dozen sources. People frequently miss important deadlines or didn’t hear about events. And, not everyone is on social media (!). Also, if you don’t have kids in the schools or family here, you don’t know how to plug in to the community.

2. businesses and organizations.

Not just our small businesses, but larger organizations struggle with reaching the Zachary audience. This course helped me to broaden my horizons and seek corporate sponsorships that align with our values and mission — starting with a partnership with the City of Zachary and one with the School District.

I’ve come up with goals for the next 18 months, some of which are non-monetary and focused on building community, like the start of Family Dinners to welcome newcomers. Others are more specific, like growing to eight issues per year.

I’m so grateful to this cohort and the EJCP for helping me to find clarity and establish the trajectory of our publication.

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