“If you’re trying to build a stronger community, then reliability and consistency are key, as well as having a strong, clear message so people know what to expect, and come to trust you to provide the sort of information that they’re looking for,” he continues.
“We’re consistent with our message so our readers can understand more about the community they live in. And we always sought, by our design and our content, to reflect those values.”
Consequently, the Insider has a lighthearted, informative tone. It introduces people with sections like “Meet Your Neighbor” and “Meet Your Local Veteran;” tells about our roots with the “History” section; and delights with the antics of Charlie the dog from “Charlie’s Corner.”
Every section of the publication has been carefully thought out, to make it fun and engaging, to add value and establish continuity.
We deliver a completely in-color publication printed on 45 lb top-quality paper to residents and businesses along the Grand Strand every month. We also have an online presence.
“We’ve aimed to be a feel-good source of information that’s reflective of what community is,” Jim says. “We wanted to be something families could read together at the dinner table without fear of exposing their children to it. To me that’s what community is— it’s feel-good, and it’s inclusive. And that’s why we’re full color and why we focus on print: because it’s more fun to read, it brings people together, it puts a smile on your face, it engages you.”
Jim and John began by focusing on the Market Common area, the newest subset to the Grand Strand.
But the intention was always to connect that area to all the rest of the areas along the Grand Strand— a vision which they began to implement with our name change to the Coastal Insider in 2018, and continue to implement by the addition, beginning nine months ago, of our community sections.
Since that time, we’ve added additional communities, and this month are welcoming the inception of the Pawleys Island community page.
The community pages are separated into several components: there’s a main article that highlights what that particular community would like to showcase about themselves for the month; a schedule of their events; and a separate real estate summary which lists the total volume of sales for that month; the average sales price for the area that month; and the average number of days on the market.
“If you own real estate, you want to be able to see how your investment is doing,” Jim says. “If you’re looking to purchase in the area, you want to know what the market is doing.”
Over $3 billion dollars in residential sales transferred in Horry County last year. One half of those sales was from local residents, and the other half was from out of state buyers.
A community publication that provides the range and depth of information that we do is important to a geographic area like ours, because it speaks to the interests and needs of both sides of that $3 billion dollar demographic that directly feeds our local economy.
