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Publisher Happy With Encinitas Newspaper’s Progress

Publisher Happy With Encinitas Newspaper’s Progress

Horizon Marketing Opens Office in Los Angeles

Media & Marketing

by Tanya Rodrigues, Staff Writer

For the value of a used car, you can live out your dreams. It worked for Roman Koenig, who said the North Coast Current, a new Encinitas monthly, is going strong.

A native of the area, Koenig is publisher and editor of the fledgling newspaper, which he launched in February.

The idea has been percolating for a couple of years, but the timing of the launch was motivated more by the availability of advertising director, Daniel Leu, a longtime friend, Koenig said.

The newspaper cost several thousand dollars to launch. Koenig sold a car to pay for it. Originally, he budgeted to run the paper for six months, but advertising sales indicate that it will survive beyond that, he said.

Sales are slow, but they’re better than expected and increase with each issue, he said.

Besides Leu and himself, Koenig has two free-lance writers and a free-lance photographer on board. The paper is designed and edited out of Koenig’s home office to save costs, he said. The main expenses so far have been printing, distribution and paying free-lancers, he said.

Running the Current is a part-time gig for Koenig, who formerly worked as a news editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune and the North County Times. He now teaches journalism at SDSU and Palomar College.

Beyond the free-lancers, he has several unpaid interns from local journalism programs.

More than he expected, Koenig has found that Encinitas is a popular place for free community papers. The North Coast News has long been covering the city and several other cities in North County, but another newcomer is The Newspaper, which seems to focus more on features, he said.

As for the Current, it is centered on covering the Encinitas communities in detail , including follow-ups on larger news in the past, he said. One example was a story on the man-made Lake Val Sereno in Olivenhain, where a dam broke in the late ’70s, and current efforts are under way to restore it as a natural habitat.

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Sound Bites: Horizon Marketing Communications, a 9-year-old firm that moved its headquarters to San Diego three years ago, recently opened a new office in Los Angeles. The office has two employees and is planned to support the company’s business in Southern California. The Advertising Club of San Diego’s annual Hispanic marketing lunch program takes place May 16 at the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley at noon. The topic is “Al Corazon: Straight to the Heart of the Hispanic Market.”

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Signings: Parker/White in Solana Beach recently announced it signed in February to be Carlsbad-based Sulzer Dental, Inc.’s advertising agency of record. CEO Keith White said the agency was not releasing the account’s projected billings. The account was previously held by Venice, Calif., agency One Healthcom. MJE Marketing Services LLC recently said it began working for CDC Small Business Finance Corp. in January. The company isn’t saying how much they’re being paid. No details on the account review were available, except for that the review began with a formal request for proposals. The contract is for one year. Drasnin Communications was signed to handle the opening event and promotions for Pat & Oscar’s newest restaurant in the Downtown San Diego area. The locally based restaurant chain has hired Hillcrest-based Drasnin for projects in the past. No details were released on how much revenue the account will generate for the PR agency.

The deadline for the next Media & Marketing column is May 15. Rodrigues can be reached at (858) 277-6359, Ext. 107, or via e-mail at

trodrigues@sdbj.com.

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