46 Business View - January 2016
within the local community.”
Daum’s publication took off, with a response that ex-
ceeded her wildest dreams. People wanted to read
Coffee News, restaurants wanted to carry it, and local
businesses wanted to advertise in it. “She did this for
quite a while,” says Buckley, “until one day, somebody
called from northern Manitoba and wanted to know if
they could have Coffee News for their restaurant up in
this small town of about 15,000 people. Daum said,
‘Sure, but you need to buy the rights to your town, and
publish it.’ So, the idea of a franchise came to mind.
She got some attorneys involved and they created the
Canadian franchise concept for her. She sold her first
Coffee News franchise in Thompson, Manitoba.”
Buckley was introduced to Coffee News in 1995 when
he discovered it in nearby New Brunswick, Canada,
then made a call to Daum, expressing his interest
about becoming her first U.S.-based franchisee. She
sent him some materials and he was quickly con-
vinced that it would be an “absolute, fantastic idea”
for his community of local businesses and their local
patrons. He explains: “Most small advertisers are not
well-served by publications or media that give you half
of the state for coverage, because you’re being forced
to pay for more coverage than you really can use. What
Coffee News did was allow small businesses to target
customers where they get 80 percent of their custom-
ers from. Our local media, here, broadcasts about 150
miles in every direction, so you pay for that kind of cov-
erage, even though you can’t take advantage of it. Cof-
fee News went in the opposite direction and offered
advertising for the small business, locally. And I knew
that would work. So, in 1995, I bought the rights, got
out on the street, and sold out the first edition.”
Like Daum, Buckley was immediately successful, not-
withstanding his lack of publishing experience. “I was
a retail banker; I had six branch offices that I super-
vised and I did mortgage origination. I had no experi-
ence in publishing, whatsoever, and no experience in
FRANCHISE
