Since the online revolution began, production and sales of newspapers has declined. As an online culture, we have replaced out daily gazettes with a click on a web browser icon. Newspapers are feeling the strain of reducing advertising revenue and are thus, finding ways to cut costs in order to remain profitable.

Not so for Sustainable Times. Founder and CEO, George Zens, started the only Wisconsin paper centered around a variety of sustainable industries, because he was curious about the environment and noticed no one was writing about sustainable business products and practices. The paper has been such a success that advertising sales have doubled, and circulation has reached 10,000 copies a month, according to Zens.

Zens’ strategy has been to sell advertising to private business as opposed to hitting up corporations with large advertising budgets. This gives the ads and the paper a local feel and increases readers’ trust in the products advertised.  To this day, advertising rates are competitive with other paper prices and more than half a dozen pages are reserved for ad space.

In addition to printed copies circulated at 300 southern Wisconsin locations, Sustainable Times operates a web site with similar news features and events not found in the paper. In the face of risk, Sustainable Times has done more than sustain business, it has thrived: a testament to the increasing interest in sustainable businesses and living.