Carlos Puente
Start with Ad Sales, Become a Magazine Owner
Episode 067
Over the past 25 years, Carlos Puente has called the San Gabriel Valley home and instantly fell in love with the SGV.
“I felt the passion that the SGV community has for their own individual cities but also the unity that all the cities have with each other.“
He started CARDON Media in 2016 as a family-owned company with experience in sales, customer service, advertising, and marketing. Their first client was the long-established community newspaper Mid Valley News, and represented them in the community, handling all their distribution and sales. In the next few years, CARDON Media grew to represent other local newspapers covering 15 cities in the SGV.
In 2018, CARDON Media published its own newspaper called “El Monte NOW,” which later grew into the “San Gabriel Valley NOW” newspaper, which published its last issue in 2021. The San Gabriel Valley NOW brand has grown into social media, radio, and soon video streaming (Roku) and will start publishing the” San Gabriel Valley NOW” magazine and “SGV NOW $avings” Magazine this year (2022).
Carlos Puente is currently on the El Monte/S. El Monte Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and is the Ambassador Director for the Chamber.
Website: sgvnow.com
Phone: 626-238-4754
Carlos Puente Takeaways
- Carols grew up in LA with his mom
- Carlis fell in love with the sense of community from the SGV
- Carlos got involved with selling newspaper ads
- Carlos grew up around the area and started his own company
- Carlos’s company blossomed into its own newspaper
- That paper shifted into covering the local area online.
- Carlos is still very passionate about the community and showcasing all the hidden treasures of the SGV.
- Russell and Scott talk with a reporter who calls the San Gabriel Valley home. This topic hits home for Scott because he feels a connection to the news, and it’s important to keep the news alive. The guest, Carlos Puente, is the publisher of CARDON Media.
Carlos Puente Quotes
- “I stopped the newspaper, but I never stopped reporting new information…”
Show Notes
Do you provide information on the San Gabriel Valley?
Carlos provides news announcements through Instagram announcements for the SGV.
Do you have another connection to the SGV?
Carlos works for a marketing company named Cardone Media. It started as a marketing company that went through newspapers.
Because Carlos grew up with a single mother in a big city like LA, he didn’t have that close love for a small community like in the SGV, but when he moved here, he fell in love with it.
He started to get involved with the newspapers that reporters in small areas. Middle Valley news reported literally in the middle of the SGV.
He got the ad sales job at Middle Valley News, and he became the face of the newspaper.
He took the newspaper from an attune of coming to us to buy ads to a system of going out and connecting to the community to sell as space.
Carlos met Government officials, businesses, and other parts of the community by selling Middle Valley ad spots.
He saw other small papers all had a similar position. So instead, Carlos decided to make his own company, combining all the paper sales needs.
After the person that Carlos put into newspapers retired, he opened his own paper in El Monte, “El Monte Now,” to avoid competing with him.
He originally opened his paper with a graphic designer, but it didn’t work out, but Carlos kept it up.
Are the people you used to sell ads for still printing?
They are, but Carlos decided to be different and go digital first. The outreach for them is the same as before as well.
Generational targeting Carlos went with digital to try to grab the younger crowd, the crowd he saw as less likely to complain, and teach the older folks how to join the online community.
Carlos went full digital after an incident of accusations.
Carlos is working on exposing some of the most incredible things on the SGV, like Bradbury, athletes, and the story of Jelly Belly.
Carlos is a big champion for the Chamber of Commerce because he does it all himself. He really appreciates how much a chamber of commerce can help a small business.
Where do people go online to find a digital edition of your magazine?
According to Carlos SGVNow.com, Instagram and Facebook are great ways to access the magazine.
What did you do before you got to this?
Carlos used to work in communications and, unsurprisingly, sales.
Carlos also did freelance work on pagers.
What did you bring?
The Chamber of Commerce awarded Carlos Ambassador of the Year.
He brought it in because he feels strongly about helping the chamber because it helps the community.
Carlos also gained 5,000 Instagram followers through engaging posts and talking about the community of the SGV, and it means a lot to him that that growth can be attained just by passion.
