Profiles of Innovation

Making local news relevant: Community Impact brings the local paper back fromthe dead

John Garrett, Founder and CEO of Community Impact Newspapers
Co-founder and COO Jennifer Garrett with husband John.
Courtesy photo

Nobody thought John Garrett could possibly succeed. In a new media environment — a revolution in media really — Garrett planned to bring back a dinosaur, a weekly newspaper.

"I was convinced that the average Joe wanted to know what was going on around them. So I left my job at the [Austin] Business Journal and just kind of hit the ground running. Our mission is to make sure everyone knows what's happening in their own backyard."

Community Impact newspaper is now nearly seven years old and Garrett is publishing 12 weekly newspapers in three of Texas largest cities — Austin, Dallas and Houston — with a mailed circulation of over 750,000 households.

"I just knew there was a need there and I had a background that could approach that need in a unique way. And I really sold quality and a commitment to quality and sold the need that was out there. I think every one can relate to the idea that local news matters and local business matters."

He didn't do it alone. Garrett is quick to point to his staff and fellow visionaries helping him achieve success everyday and now his staff, which numbers over 70, includes someone as dedicated to success as he is — Jennifer Garrett, John's wife, is COO of Community Impact.

"She's not only my biggest ally, she's Chief Operating Officer here now, so not only does she have a full time job taking care of our girls but she comes here and helps manage. She serves on our executive team to make sure we are fulfilling our mission. She's very passionate about the business. She's a big part of our success here."

Garrett approaches his job with one eye on the leadership he provides to his company, a leadership based on five principles: Faith, Passion, Quality, Innovation and Integrity. The words are never far from the eyes of staff at Community Impact. His other eye is focused at home. Garrett knows that work has little meaning if there is not a larger goal at stake.

"I have 3 beautiful daughters, work-life balance is really important to me and it's important for my staff to have it as well. I've been really blessed to be able to get home and spend time with the girls and that’s everything to me, my family, my wife, my girls.

"I had a lot of people tell me, ‘that is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.’ You have to have vision and you have to understand what that vision looks like and say 'OK, this is what has to be,' to me that’s key."

Proof of the success of Community Impact newspapers hangs on the walls around the office. Dozens of journalism and sales awards remind Garrett that his peers recognize the work he and his staff are doing.

Yes, at a time when newspapers all around the country are struggling to survive, John Garrett found a magic formula. "I’ve learned in 7 years that the average consumer doesn’t really care about where they get the news first, they just want news that has breadth and depth." It's news Community Impact delivers to the doorstep every week.

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Starting from bed rest

Kendra Scott goes to Houston: "Like Build-A-Bear for grown women"

Following a flagship store on Austin's South Congress, and addresses in BeverlyHills and Dallas' West Village, a Kendra Scott boutique has cropped up this weekin Rice Village.
Photo by Whitney Radley
Kendra Scott, the woman behind the eponymous jewelry line, grew up in Houstonbefore moving to Austin at 19.
Photo by Whitney Radley

Kendra Scott's success story is one for the books: Pregnant and confined to bed rest, with a recently-unemployed husband and a meager bank balance, she began creating custom jewelry.

Once she was allowed back on her feet, Scott would walk around to Austin stores taking sales orders and then sell her samples to the very last shop on her route so that she'd have the funds to purchase supplies to fill them.

Eleven years later, Scott opened her fourth eponymous boutique (and the largest yet) in Houston's Rice Village this week, with others slated for CityCentre and Scottsdale, Ariz. — and she's revolutionizing the way that women shop for jewelry.

But the best part is, each wearer has the ability to tailor pieces to her personal tastes or a particular outfit at the Color Bar.

"I found that what was missing out there was colorful, beautiful jewelry using natural gemstones, at a price that I could afford," Scott says.

She and her design team lean on antique jewels and contemporary trends for inspiration to create pieces that are in vogue, on-brand and timeless — something that, Scott hopes, a granddaughter will pull out of a jewelry box decades hence.

But the best part is, each wearer has the ability to tailor pieces to her personal tastes or a particular outfit at the Color Bar. The Rice Village boutique is equipped with two 55-inch touch screens, a half-dozen iPads and even "bar menus" with images of products and options.

This makes each customer a part of the design process. They select the style, the stones and the metal, and then watch while a store clerk — all of whom are trained stone-setters — makes the design a reality.

"It's like Build-A-Bear for grown women," laughs Scott, who got the idea early on when her workers would customize the colors of their own jewelry pieces for a night out on the town.

She took that concept on the road for a trunk show at Henri Bendel in New York that was supposed to last just three days. It ended up attracting lines out the door for three months, and the Color Bar became a staple.

But the shopping isn't the only thing that is experiential: Kendra Scott boutiques are event driven, with the Color Bar available for booking for bridal brunches or girlfriend get-togethers, and a Girls Night Out each Wednesday that draws fashionable crowds for cupcakes, champagne and select jewelry deals.

Kendra Gives Back parties offer opportunities for an organization to benefit from 20 percent of proceeds. Attendees, meanwhile, can gild themselves and feel guilt-free about the indulgence.

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The new Kendra Scott boutique is in Rice Village at 2411 Times Boulevard, Suite 120. The store is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 12 to 6 p.m.