“I’d been seeing this new direct mail newspaper coming out of Frisco,” she said. “I thought, ‘What a cool, unique product—I wish we had one in Plano.’”
She sent a late-night email to Community Impact Founders Jennifer and John Garrett asking if North Dallas meant Plano, and the rest is history.
Libby launched the Plano newspaper in 2014 as the general manager and has been a part of every Dallas-Fort Worth launch since, from Richardson to McKinney to Lewisville. In 2022, she was promoted to DFW Metro Publisher, where she continues to oversee the office’s expansion.
Libby shared her professional experiences and plans for Community Impact's future in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Q: What changes have you seen at Community Impact since starting?
Libby: When I started, there were 10 of us working in a tiny, temporary office in Grapevine. We opened our Frisco headquarters and then a few years later, we knocked down a wall and doubled the size of our office space. And now, with over 45 DFW Impacters, we're looking to move again to make more space for our growing team.
I think the biggest things that have changed have been the speed of innovation and the momentum that we've built by adding new products and growing to new areas. In 2015, we developed in-house technology with the creation of our own proprietary CRM software. In 2016, we built our own printing press in Pflugerville. We’ve gotten even more professional with the way that we deliver content, in print and digitally on our own platform with our own tools.
We were really scrappy in the beginning, and we still are, but we're organized in the way we approach the work. We've always had really talented, passionate people, and that's not changed—we just have a lot more of them now and more strategies to maximize everyone’s strengths.
Q: What was your experience launching Community Impact’s Plano newspaper?
Libby: The energy when launching a paper is electric. If you’re on a Community Impact launch team, you're really on the ground level of the mission, which is to be a light for our communities. That’s what drew me to Community Impact from the beginning: getting to launch something new for a community that didn't know we were coming but needed us.
From a circulation standpoint, the Plano newspaper has always been one of the largest in the company. We wanted to keep a hyperlocal focus, so in 2020, we split into two papers: Plano North and Plano South. That was a big change that we ended up replicating across the company by looking at where we could become even more hyperlocal and better serve our communities. The split also made it more equitable for local businesses to reach their neighborhood within a large city.
That's been a fun part of my time at Community Impact: being a part of those changes and innovations and developing those plans. Being a family-owned company, we can be flexible and respond quickly to market needs, to our readers and advertisers, and we’re not afraid to try new things.
Q: What other growth have you seen since 2014?
Libby: When I joined the company, we had a website but it wasn't really a focus. Since then, we've dramatically innovated our digital products and established our digital footprint with a daily email newsletter, our website and CI Sponsored Content. Across our 34 coverage areas throughout Texas, we have nearly 120,000 subscribers to our daily email newsletters, and the ways we can serve our clients continue to increase.
One thing I love about Community Impact is we lean into new technologies, and we look at how we can use them to make our products even better for both the reader and the advertiser, and we'll continue to do that.
As a company, we're swimming against the current in the industry. When you see national stories about news organizations, cutting staff and trying to do more with less, we’re going against that trend.
Our secret sauce is that we're in-person in the community. You’ll see us out there at the chamber meetings and city council meetings, and I think that just speaks to our unique offering in these communities. We're bringing feet on the street.
Q: What has your experience been as the new leader and publisher of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro?
Libby: It’s been a big change from being on the ground level in one or two markets to having a bigger view of the metro. I've been involved here and there in various parts of the metro strategy before I was the publisher, but now I have more time to focus on longer term vision and that’s really exciting.
Being futuristic is one of my top strengths, so getting to flex that a little bit more has been fun for me. [I’ve been] looking ahead and asking, ‘How and where can we grow? How can we strategize the best path to get there?’ I've also really enjoyed working with the other teams and Impacters across Texas in Austin, Houston and San Antonio.
Q: What’s the plan for the Dallas Metro’s expansion?
Libby: There are several areas we have our eyes on, but we’re really thoughtful about those expansion decisions and always focused on quality and people. Our Managing Editors William Wadsack and Miranda Jaimes as well as Art Production Managers Breanna Flores and Chelsea Peters have done a great job leading our editorial and design teams as we’ve grown our presence in the DFW area.
One of our most recent announcements is that we will be expanding into Prosper and Celina in September. General Manager Vicki Chen has been the quarterback of the expansion process and will lead our Frisco, Prosper and Celina team this fall.
Neighboring McKinney also has a lot of synergy with the Prosper and Celina communities. The expansion around US 380 has been a hot topic for readers in this area, and we’re excited to get to cover the growth and help readers better understand the changes they are seeing around their homes and businesses.
We also have the faith in the advertiser support we need for us to be able to print, mail and deliver to homes in those communities, which is important because our newspapers are free to the residents.
We're thrilled to be growing the team and we’ve already started those conversations for the launch in September 2023.
