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Welcome to The Niche Fix. Each week, we will share insights from experts and professionals in the niche publishing industry. Have questions or thoughts about the industry? Reply to this email, and let’s chat!

But first…

Don’t forget to include Niche Media Events into your 2026 budget.

Here’s what’s locked in so far:

Niche Media Conference — April 8–10, Orlando, Florida
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We’re making 2026 our best year yet. Hope to see you there!

Ryan Dohrn’s Sales Corner: How to Finish Q4 Strong

As the year winds down, most people start easing up with holiday parties, vacation days, and leftovers for lunch. But according to Ryan Dohrn, that slowdown is exactly when great salespeople should step on the gas.

“There’s a common misunderstanding this time of year that people tend to slow down a little bit,” Ryan says. “That’s absolutely not the case, especially in sales.”

To finish Q4 strong, Ryan shared three key moves every seller should make before the ball drops.

1. Bring real value to every meeting.
A renewal meeting that’s just about checking a box isn’t valuable to the client.

“If the meeting is just for me, there’s not a lot of value for the client,” Ryan says. “Bring a publisher, a GM, or a digital pro—someone who can elevate the conversation.”

Clients are selfish (his words), and if they’re giving you time, you better make it worth it.

2. Get loud when others go quiet.
Most reps disappear around the holidays, which is a mistake.

“The week around Thanksgiving or Christmas is actually a great time to sell,” Ryan explains. “Decision-makers are still working, and it’s easier to cut through the clutter because everyone else is quiet.”

He uses those quieter days to reconnect, rebuild relationships, and close lingering opportunities.

3. Be helpful, not pushy.
By late Q4, everyone’s chasing renewals and final invoices.

“Every salesperson in the country is trying to reach out,” Ryan says.

His tactic is to acknowledge the noise and offer simplicity: ‘What can I do to make this super easy for you?’ The goal is to stand out by being the least painful part of your client’s December inbox.

And don’t forget the use-it-or-lose-it budgets. Many clients need to spend remaining funds before year-end. “Reach out and help them allocate those dollars wisely,” Ryan adds.

His mantra for the season: “When others go quiet, get loud. Bring value. Be different.”

Now, let’s talk beating Google…

The Anti-Google Media Kit

By Zach O’Brien

Let’s be honest: nobody gets excited to open a rate card.

For years, publishers have been sending out PDFs filled with 300x250 boxes, CPMs, and a prayer that someone, somewhere, will pay for something Google already gives away for free.

Kenny Katzgrau thinks that’s madness.

As the founder of Broadstreet and publisher of Red Bank Green, he’s built a business on one principle: help small publishers kick the sh*t out of Google and Facebook.

“I mean, they made a hundred billion dollars last quarter,” he says. “I think that’s plenty.”

His solution? Stop trying to be them.

Step One: Retire the Cheeseburger

“Don’t sell standard display ads,” Kenny says. “It’s a hard sell to sell something the big guys are giving away for practically free. You’ve got to do something different.”

He compares Google and Facebook to a global fast-food chain: “Their whole thing is standardization and scale. They’re pumping out a billion cheeseburgers so they all look exactly the same. You—local publishers—need to be the hole-in-the-wall restaurant making something nobody else can.”

Translation: your media kit shouldn’t look like the McMenu.

Instead of page after page of ad sizes, build packages around stories, experiences, and outcomes. What can you do that Big Tech can’t? Custom sponsorships, branded content written by your editors, local business spotlights, sponsored email sections, community awards, contests, podcasts, or live events.

Anything that feels like your market, and nothing that feels like a template.

Step Two: Sell the Lift, Not the Logo

Kenny’s favorite sales trick is disarmingly simple: ask better questions.

“When I go into a sales conversation,” he says, “I ask things like, ‘If everything goes as well as you hope this year, where’s the business?’ One guy told me, ‘We’re number one in Red Bank.’ Great. That’s the goal. My job is to help him get there.”

Suddenly, the sale isn’t about a leaderboard of ad sizes. It’s about a story arc: a business owner who wants to level up, and a local publisher who knows how to guide them there.

That’s what the Anti-Google Media Kit sells: the lift from here to there.

And if you’re doing it right, you’re not really selling ads at all. You’re selling momentum, visibility, and local reputation. “It’s about helping other people,” Kenny says. “You’re not helping yourself, you’re helping them.”

Step Three: Prove It Exists

Another Kenny gem: “Nothing makes a Red Bank business owner happier than to hear, ‘Saw your ad on Red Bank Green.’”

Because in the local world, perception is performance. When advertisers cancel, the reason is always the same: ‘No one said they saw my ad.’

So Kenny does everything he can to make results visible. “I label ads, I put lead forms in place. One of my attorney clients got a case because someone filled out a personal-injury lead form.”

The lesson: Big Tech sells invisible clicks. You sell visible impact.

If you can hand an advertiser a story—“Someone literally walked in and said they saw your ad”—you’ve just beaten the algorithm at its own game.

Step Four: Believe in Your Own Product

Maybe the biggest takeaway from Kenny’s philosophy isn’t tactical; It’s emotional.

“The tools you use to help your advertisers have to be something you believe in and can get excited about,” he says. “And your advertisers have to believe in them too.”

If you don’t love your own ad products, neither will anyone else. That’s why so many rate cards feel like museum exhibits from 2009, dusty artifacts of an era when “digital advertising” meant “banner plus leaderboard.”

Your new media kit should feel like a conversation, not a menu.

Lead with stories you’ve helped create, the wins you’ve delivered, and a promise that no global platform can match: you actually live in the same community as your advertisers.

The Guerrilla Playbook

Kenny loves a good underdog metaphor. “Throughout history, anytime the little guy was fighting the big guys—the American rebels and the British, guerrilla tactics always won. The little guys did what the big guys couldn’t do.”

So do that. Build products the big guys can’t replicate. Serve customers they can’t see. Measure results they can’t comprehend.

That’s the Anti-Google Media Kit in one line: make something too local, too human, and too weird for Silicon Valley to steal.

And if you do it right, those billion-dollar cheeseburgers don’t stand a chance.

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