GateHouse's Newport publications get new ad director

NEWPORT — Ed Kedzierski, who has expertise in web marketing, has been named the next advertising director for The Newport Daily News, Newport Life Magazine and the other GateHouse Media-owned publications in Newport.

Kedzierski, who grew up on Long Island, New York, moved to Newport in 1987 and spent two decades in the real estate business. About 10 years ago, he got involved in the web marketing industry. He was a partner at Precision Web Marketing, a venture that was later sold to an information technology company.

For the past two years, Kedzierski has been the head of advertising for South Coast Media, a branch of GateHouse that covers Southeastern Massachusetts. Now he’s bringing his experience to Newport.

“We’re looking forward to getting out there and engaging with the local business community, consulting with them and creating a plan that will help them grow,” Kedzierski said. “We want to meet their objectives, whatever they may be. We have the horsepower and the know-how to do that, even on the local level.”

Kedzierski said community websites such as NewportRI.com have high advertisement engagement levels with readers.

“When you talk about the digital world, it’s a whole new ballgame,” he said. “With all of the technology we have these days, you can target a specific audience. National advertisers covet local sites because of how much time readers are spending on the page and interacting with the ads. Local news websites perform above national news websites.”

When Kedzierski approaches a potential client, he said he stresses that The Newport Daily News is a “trusted source” in the community. And those clients, he said, can be a mom-and-pop shop in Newport or a national or international company “anywhere in the world.”

Locally owned operations make up the vast majority of businesses in Newport, and Kedzierski said “they’re our bread and butter. With the resources we have, with the technology we have, there is a ton of opportunity. There is so much we can offer local businesses now.”

Kedzierski will officially begin his new role on Dec. 3.

"I've met the team and known some of the people, and everybody is passionate and committed to the local community," he said. "We’re going to go out and meet and greet and tell [local businesses] what we have to offer."