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June 14, 2025, 1:19 pm UTC

SandMark Media, LLC 46-1244768 | Government Grant Application

SandMark Media, LLC | Application Preview

 

SandMark Media, LLC is seeking government grants to hire local news and sports journalists, which will enhance their coverage of community events. This expansion is aimed at boosting local interest stories online, ultimately driving advertising revenue. The company plans to hire a sales representative to increase income, with the goal of becoming self-sufficient in supporting their journalists.

Currently, SandMark Media stands as the largest news service in the tri-county area and aims to transition to a subscription-based model within two years. The application highlights the importance of this funding, noting the gap left by a local print news service that shifted its focus to Detroit, igniting the need for a new online news platform. SandMark Media has experienced significant growth, now reaching approximately 25,000 readers in a community of 16,000, but struggles to progress due to insufficient funding for full-time journalists.

In terms of competition, SandMark Media faces two main rivals: Sault News and SooLeader.com. Both of these competitors are backed by large conglomerates, which puts SandMark Media, as a locally owned independent entity, at a disadvantage. Despite their challenges, SandMark Media believes its local ownership and operational independence provide a competitive edge, making it a valuable resource for the community amidst a landscape dominated by well-funded corporate news services.

  • General Information

    Business Registration Number: 46-1244768

    Location: Sault Sainte Marie, MI, United States

    Length of Operation: 11plus

    Number of Employees: 1-10 Employees

    Annual Gross Income: Less than $100k

    Annual Gross Expense: Less than $100k

    Open to Loans: NO

  • Funding Usage

    These funds would be used to hire news and sports journalists to contribute more local items of interest to our reader base. Once we can get more local stories online, we can push harder for advertising on the site. The acquisition of a sales representative would increase our income with the hope that we can support the journalists on our own.

  • Business Plan

    With the acquisition of new journalists, we'd be able to cover and report on more local events taking place in the community. We are still the largest news service in the tri-county reqion and I'd like to move to a subscription-based service within a two year period. We are a small business located in a small community. When our local print news stopped covering local news and was printed in Detroit, I saw a need for a new type news service - online. It's free and the community loved it and we grew exponentially over the years to earn an average reader based of roughly 25,000 people in a 16,000 population community. We've struggled going to that next step with a full-time news journalist and sports journalist due to lack of funding. I truly believe that once we get that next step going, our advertising sales will increase accordingly.

  • Self Identified Competition

    I really only have two competitors in the area. Sault News is the local print news/online news with subscription. Their print distribution is only 1900 and their online subscription is falling. They are owned by a national conglomerate - Gannet News - so they have no problem with funding.. The second competitor is from Canada and it's called SooLeader.com. They, too, are a very large company with more than 24 online outlets throughout Ontario and Michigan. They, also, are very well funding and have sold no advertising, but they just merged with another mega-news service from Canada. As the only locally, independently owned an operated news service in the area, I'm under heavily funded attack by other, mainly foreign, corporations. I believe I answered a lot of this in the previous question. I am the only locally-owned, independently -operated news service in the area. The other two competitors are major conglomerates who have no funding concerns. Even though they (both) sell very little, if any, advertising, they have the funding to hire journalists and sales reps.

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