While most of those who think about hyperlocal publishing rave about digital print, Goss International has found itself a textbook customer for its third Magnum Compact order.

The Austin, Texas, based Community Impact Newspaper is print publishing reinvented: A response to low print readership founded on faith and an underdog mentality. John and Jennifer Garrett went to the same Pflugerville school, and graduated from the same university before marrying in 1999.

After working for the Houston Chronicle - one of the "giants" in his David and Goliath parable - he joined Austin Business Journal as advertising director and helped build it into its current chain of 41. Three years later, the first monthly Community Impact Newspaper editions mailed free in Round Rock and Pflugerville were a response to the knowledge that 70-80 per cent of residents in the growing Central Texas region didn't subscribe to a newspaper.

Local information was scarce, and Garrett tells how - when 2005 plans for a tollway were vague and little known - he visited the office and hand-drew every entrance and exit ramp, literally putting the fledgling newspaper on the map with readers. Ten years later the newspaper's 20 editions reach nearly 1.5 million mailboxes in 31 cities throughout the Austin, Dallas/Ft Worth and Houston metro areas.

Its website lists a string of industry and community awards including five consecutive INC.5000 for fastest-growing company, one from John's former employer for best chief executive and 73 from the National Newspaper Association for journalism and advertising design.

The highly-automated three-tower Magnum Compact with its Contiweb FB pasters and N45 folder and quarterfolder, will be central to a new printing operation, with the press - the third to be ordered in the world - installed in the second quarter of next year.

The Garretts - who built their business on pillars of faith, passion, quality, innovation and integrity - believe the publication model can be replicated elsewhere: "The news industry is a very competitive marketplace, with online and print competing for the same audience, and to be heard over other news channels, you have to up your game," John Garrett says.

"This means providing a news source that is highly-targeted, provides quality content and has a good reputation for accurate, reliable information. This is where print is stronger than digital media, and Community Impact Newspaper is proof of that."

The decision to mail the monthly newspaper free-of-charge was an early one, and has been a contributor to its growth. "Gone are the days of people paying for news, so in order to be profitable you have to ensure that your publication has high-quality content," says Garrett. "This ensures that advertisers recognise its value to readers."

He says providing a regionalised, versioned newspaper that reaches a very specific, local target audience is crucial. "This approach has served us well to date but we continue to look for ways to enhance our paper to provide an even better product in the future. To take the next step, we need to bring high-quality printing in-house and increase our versioning capabilities."

The new press is cost-effective on runs as short as 500-1000 copies, and will enable the publisher to manage versioning and targeted inserts at production level. From outsourcing their production to a printer with a Goss press, they started a dialogue which has led to the order, with features such as its automatic plate loading and quick changeovers critical.

"We know the decision to bring print in-house isn't typical for publishers, but we have a market-leading product and are certain of the many opportunities available - just within what we are doing today, let alone when we start to grow," Garrett says.

Pictured: Jennifer and John Garrett on their newspaper's website

Below: (from left) consultant Paul Lynch, consultant, Derek Sullivan (creative director), David Ludwick (operations manager), Goss Americas managing director Mike D'Angelo, John Garrett (publisher and chief executive), Graham Trevett (Goss sales vice president) Goss and Mike McGeady (Goss district sales manager)