Business owners and managers in the Statesboro and Bulloch County area now have a new digital agency to help grow their customer base.
The Statesboro Herald has partnered with Advanced Media Solutions, or AMS, a new digital services provider that offers businesses such tools as reputation management, local business listings, email targeting by demographic, Geo and mobile customer targeting, social media management and screen responsive mobile sites. And there's more to follow, Herald Operations Manager Jim Healy announced Wednesday.
"Several customers asked about adding new digital services to supplement our other online and print products," Healy said. "We listened and went to work, trying to add to our existing capabilities and partner with quality service providers to provide the full breadth of products and services under our new agency model.
"We look forward to sharing these new services with customers and explaining how we can help them expand their potential client base in this increasingly digital and mobile world," he added.
The startup of Advanced Media Solutions has been a recent focus of Randy Morton, former publisher of the Statesboro Herald and now director of strategic initiatives, in conjunction with the newspaper's parent company, Morris Multimedia Inc.
"We've been looking at digital options and the many providers out there for some time," Morton said. "We kept trying to find the best possible alternatives to drive the best results for our customers.
"From those efforts as well as some professional advice from a nationally known media consultant," he continued, "we were able to narrow it down to a starting list of services and partners that seemed the best fit for our area businesses."
The Herald has been expanding rapidly in the world of digital media in recent years. Subscribers have been able to read every page of the newspaper just as it's written on their computer anywhere they have Internet service.
Statesboroherald.com has also won several prestigious awards for best website, including best media website in Georgia and best in the nation by the National Newspaper Association in 2009. The Herald has captured the top spot in General Excellence for small daily papers for the past five years in a row from the Georgia Press Association.
"We have a great local newspaper and website," Healy said. "We've been offering website design, email marketing and sponsored content online for some time. The new services we're adding through our digital agency expand the ways we can better serve customers."
"Recently, we made it possible to purchase regional display ads on our websites and cover the entire Southeast Georgia region," Morton added. "You can now deliver a guaranteed number of ad views through our other affiliate websites and digital networks."
According to Healy, it's about reaching more customers at a lower cost to stay in business these days.
"To help offset that challenge, we're trying to give our customers more ways to compete with the online Amazons of the world," he said. "We are grateful for the support of all our readers and advertisers over the years and plan to do everything we can to continue to earn your support in the future."
We will be trying to contact as many of our business partners as quickly as we can. Local businesses wanting more information on the new AMS Agency Services immediately may contact their Statesboro Herald account executive or Jim Healy at (912) 489-9402 jhealy@statesboroherald.com or Randy Morton at (912) 489-9468 randy@morrismultimedia.com.