Community Impact Newspaper

Community Impact is a news organization founded and privately owned by John and Jennifer Garrett, who respectively serve as its current Chief Executive Officer and Chief Facility Management Officer. Its products include monthly newspapers delivered through USPS mail and daily email newsletters to opt-in inboxes. As of 2023, it delivers to over 35 markets, covering 2.5 million mailboxes in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio metros.

Community Impact

Type	Monthly
Format	Full-color stapled newspaper
Owner(s)	John P. Garrett & Jennifer Garrett
Publisher	Jaselle Luna, Jason Culpepper, Leanne Libby, Traci Rodriguez, Travis Baker
Managing editor	Billy Wadsack, Kelly Schafler, Matt Stephens, Miranda Jaimes
Content Editor	Marie Leonard
Founded	2005
Language	English
Headquarters	16225 Impact Way Pflugerville, TX 78660
Circulation	2.5 million
Website	communityimpact.com
Free online archives	communityimpact.com/print-archives/

History

In September 2005, Community Impact Newspaper launched its first edition in Round Rock and Pflugerville, Texas. Six employees created the first newspaper in the game room of John and Jennifer Garrett’s house. Garrett was a former Advertising Director of the Austin Business Journal.

In its first five years, Community Impact Newspaper added about 60 employees and launched 10 community newspapers, including an expansion to the Houston metro in September 2009.^[1] In 2010, in a period of heavy layoffs at newspapers and throughout the legacy media industry, Community Impact Newspaper experienced growth,^[2][3][4] branding the idea that "Print Ain't Dead.^[5]" After expanding into the Dallas–Fort Worth metro area in March 2011,^[6] the media company was featured by Editor & Publisher,^[7] CISION^[8] and CultureMap Austin.^[9]

From 2011-2016, Community Impact Newspaper was named to Inc. Magazine's top 5000 fastest-growing companies for seven consecutive years.^[10]

In late 2012, Community Impact Newspaper announced plans to build a new $2.5 million headquarters in Pflugerville, TX,^[11] and the 16,000-square-foot office was completed in December 2013. John Garrett was featured in Forbes shortly after the announcement.^[12]

In June 2015, Community Impact Newspaper announced it would build a $10 million printing facility next to its headquarters to begin printing all newspaper editions starting in 2016.^[13][14] Since then Community Impact Printing has added on outside printing customers throughout the U.S.

In 2018, Community Impact Newspaper announced its first launch outside of Texas into Phoenix, Arizona, debuting in Gilbert and from there growing into Chandler.^[15] In 2019, Community Impact Newspaper launched in the Franklin & Brentwood communities outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

Early March 2020, Community Impact Newspaper launched in the Alpharetta & Milton communities outside of Atlanta, Georgia. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the market closed soon after.

In 2022, Community Impact Newspaper decided to focus solely on Texas as the 9th largest economy in the world, rebranding as Community Impact.^[16] They removed “newspaper” from their name, changed their logo and updated their mission statement as a symbol of their “flywheel” strategy, which aims to develop digital products on par with print and recognize the significance of both for readers. That same year, Community Impact started building a Houston Headquarters office in the Jersey Village community, with all staff celebrating the move in at an open house the next April.

As of 2023, the company employs 200 “Impacters” and has won many industry awards, with leadership often serving as event presenters and moderators. In April 2023, Texas Monthly did a feature profile on John Garrett and Community Impact, giving details on the thriving business given the struggling print and news industries.^[17]

Markets

As of 2022 the following markets are being served with various individual editions:

• Austin metro area including Travis County, Williamson County, Hays County and Comal County
• Houston metro area including Brazoria County, Harris County, Fort Bend County, Montgomery County and Galveston County
• Dallas | Fort Worth Metroplex including Tarrant County, Collin County, Denton County and Dallas County
• San Antonio metro area

The newspaper is mailed to all households and businesses in the given area assuring widespread circulation. It is a non-subscription based newspaper and comes free in the mail each month. However, subscriptions are available for those outside of the circulation area.

References

1. (PDF). Community Impact Newspaper. September 18 – October 16, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 21, 2013. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
2. Rob Patterson (August 5, 2010). "Community Newspapers Alive and Well". The Austin Bulldog. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
3. "The Fastest-Growing Media Companies in America". Retrieved 2015-09-16.
4. "Check Out 10 Of The Fastest Growing Private Media Companies In The U.S." Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
5. "Print ain't dead: How an ad-man-turned publisher is building a local news empire profitably in Texas". Retrieved 2015-09-16.
6. "Editor and Publisher ® - Community-Impact-Newspaper-Launches-10th-Paper-in-Texas". www.editorandpublisher.com. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
7. "Editor & Publisher ®". www.editorandpublisher.com. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
8. "Community Impact Newspaper: success in print | Vuelio". www.vuelio.com. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
9. "Making local news relevant: Community Impact brings the local paper back from the dead". Retrieved 2015-09-16.
10. "Community Impact Newspaper: Number 2737 on the 2016 Inc. 5000". Inc.com. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
11. "Community Impact Newspaper to build new campus in Pflugerville - Austin Business Journal". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
12. Helman, Christopher. "Breaking: A Local Newspaper Chain That's Actually Making Good Money". Forbes. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
13. "$10M printing facility to fuel growth for Community Impact - Austin Business Journal". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
14. Thomas, Scott. "Local newspaper owner expands to printing operation". Community Impact Newspaper. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
15. "Community Impact Newspaper will launch in Phoenix Metro area; finds first home in Town of Gilbert in September 2018 | Community Impact Newspaper". Community Impact Newspaper. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
16. "Beloved print company Community Impact announces rebrand, newsroom expansion | Community Impact Newspaper". Community Impact Newspaper. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
17. "How Community Impact Built an Oasis in the News Desert". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2023-04-01.