'Hoopla' entertainment tab to be part of the Thursday Gazette

Hoopla magazine, the entertainment tab SourceMedia Group has been publishing since the tail end of 2008, is moving into The Gazette newspaper on a weekly basis.

It no longer will be available on racks in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor but will reach more readers. The Gazette has an estimated 178,000 readers on a given day during the week.

The move is being made because many of you tell us when we conduct market research that you want The Gazette to help guide you when you think about things you could do in your leisure time. This interest goes beyond live entertainment. It includes what to do within driving distance, usually in the coming weekend, when it comes to finding a neat place to dine or visit. You also seek things in which to participate.

Hoopla Editor Carly Weber tells readers about the move in this week's edition, which hit stands on Wednesday, Nov. 24, because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Hoopla's original purpose was to reach young people with the latest information about local live entertainment, music, movies, food and the bar scene. It has been distributed on news racks free in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Corridor and has been inserted in some Gazettes.

But a lot of older people – that's people age 55 and older for those of you who don't think you are "older" – read Hoopla. In fact, the breakdown we've learned in market research is that, for every three readers, one each for readers that are ages 18 to 34, ages 35 to 54 and age 55 and older.

HooplaNow.com still exists, as well. Folks at SourceMedia Group (the company formerly known as Gazette Communications) are working on ways to make that Web site more vibrant for those folks more attuned to the digital world than they are to the print world.