Meet MICHAEL SHAPIRO

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to MICHAEL SHAPIRO. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

MICHAEL, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

In 2008, I was an attorney working in New York City and commuting from my hometown in New Jersey and had been practicing law for almost five years. My wife and I found out that our 1-year old son needed open heart surgery. During his whole first year of life I barely saw him. I decided to make a change and wanted to do something where I could help my community, do something I was passionate about, and could be home to spend more time with my wife and son. I created an online local news site in New Providence, New Jersey. Soon people in neighboring towns reached out to me and asked me to start an online local news site in their communities, and I did, and I soon found myself running three local news sites. I then left my job to work on this new business full-time. My original goal was to grow those initial sites – their revenue, their traffic, and their content. We were able to build them to profitability within a few years but I kept getting more and more requests from people to launch local news sites in their towns and I had to say no because I did not have the bandwidth. It got me thinking how could we expand yet keep providing original local news reporting every day and building relationships with local businesses in our towns. Eventually I came up with the idea of franchising local news. Today we have more than 95 franchised online local news sites in the United States.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Every day, we are making a difference in our communities by providing original local news reporting and telling stories that otherwise would never be told. We are also helping to hold our local governments accountable and enabling democracy to fluorish on the local level by increasing civic participation and reducing voter apathy. We are also helping countless local businesses be able to not only survive but thrive, as they compete against internet giants and big box retailers. While it is our business, it is also our passion.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

A quality that significantly impacted my journey is persistence. Being persistent without being annoying has been a key to success. Second, the realization that the best salespeople are often the owner of the business because they are the most passionate about it and can communicate that passion to others. Lastly, being innovative and collaborative have been critically important to our success.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I am looking for people who are passionate about local news and want to help bring a thriving local news business to their community. They can connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmshapiro/ or email me at [email protected]

Contact Info:

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