We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Tripucka and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Jennifer, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I’ve always been a connector, creative, and entrepreneur at heart — well before I started The Local Girl Media Group.
When I was in 8th grade, I started a town wide newspaper just for fun. My dad would drive me around, and I’d ask the local pizza shop and vet to advertise.
Fast-forward just about 10 years, and I had just moved to Hoboken, NJ after grad school, and wanted to explore the area and make new friends (my grandparents had textile businesses in the area for years, but living there on my own was a new experience).
I decided to chronicle my adventures, writing about all the fun happenings and local businesses while I worked full-time as a school counselor. Blogging started as just a side hobby combined with social media, and over the last 10 years, morphed into a full-scale media outlet — complete with 5 employees/editors, 15 freelancers, and a business we’ve scaled.
While growing The Hoboken Girl, I left my school job to work as an editor/social media manager at Brides Magazine at Condé Nast (now Dot Dash) — and then took the business full-time in 2017.
I wanted to create a place for people to feel like they have a ‘best friend’ and go-to place for fun content, information, and knowledge — and that’s the true community feel behind our brands.
Everything we cover — events, local news, lifestyle content, real estate, wellness — all has a fun spin that feels like your best friend is just giving you the full scoop on all the fun things going on in your area.
Now in 2023, I’m growing The Local Girl Media Group into a coaching and learning platform, where I’ll be able to help locals in their respective cities create their own hyperlocal media platforms around the world, and potentially joining our network and brands as the next step in our creative media journey.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Local Girl brands aren’t your typical hyperlocal media news sites. We’re influencer-meets-local news, covering important things like events, community happenings, and local news — but in a bite-sized, mixed media format that includes social media channels and articles.
Our goal is to be your best friend, super knowledgeable of everything going on locally — and we have a team of locals that cover fun content that spans the lifestyle gamut, including wellness, real estate, nightlife, travel, and more.
It wasn’t an “easy” road to get here. I started the website The Hoboken Girl 11 years ago in January 2012 — wanting more local connections and ways to give back to my community. It grew, slowly but surely and I learned from incredible mentors, corporate experience, and pseudo-self-taught — with no outside investors or monetary help.
Almost 6 years ago, I left my full-time cushy corporate job as an editor at Condé Nast and took a chance on myself and my community — taking my hyperlocal lifestyle platform, The Hoboken Girl, full time.
While it was definitely daunting, I learned as I went, soaked up everything I could from my various job experiences, and learned the skills I needed to sustain a full business and my own income — as well as be able to eventually employ a small team.
In 2021, I started a second media site, The Montclair Girl, in the middle of the pandemic and monetized this effectively to become a media authority
Over the past 11 years, I’ve developed several media brands including The Hoboken Girl, with social platforms and sites that are fully functioning businesses, reaching millions of readers annually, as well as hired a small team to help curate content.
There’s actually a method to creating an online media publication and platform — which nobody likes to talk about — usually there’s a LOT of gatekeeping surrounding media and how to create your own brand and succeed at it.
But I want to change that.
That’s why I’ve created The Local Girl Media Group, an educational and content platform and network that will empower women and men all over the world to create community through a media platform of their own.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Hoboken is the best spot for a day or weekend trip. It has the most bars and restaurants per capita ANYWHERE in the United States — so it’s pretty hard to just pick a few. A few musts: – Fiore’s deli, an old-school authentic Italian deli on Adams Street, on Thursday or Saturday for their roast beef mutz special (it’s won awards and national accolades galore)
– Anthony David’s or Antique Bar + Bakery for dinner (or brunch!)
– A walk on the waterfront — Pier A + C, and then rent a citibike and bike uptown to Maxwell Place.
– Grab a glass of wine at Grand Vin, a wine bar tucked away in midtown Hoboken
– A cup of cafe con leche at La Isla downtown, which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives for its Cuban dishes
There are honestly too many to name; I highly recommend checking out TheHobokenGirl.com for more 😉
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I read the book “Quitter” by Jon Acuff, which definitely changed my perspective on jumping into entrepreneurship blindly. I have always been a very cautious entrepreneur, making sure that my proverbial ducks were in a row — and this book helped me really consider keeping my day job for a while until I was fully ready to make the full jump.
I also want to shout out my incredible team — every day they are dedicated, creative, and incredible to work with. It truly takes a village, and our brand would not be where it is now without so many amazing people contributing along the way.
Website: thelocalgirl.com is our main site; Thehobokengirl.com is our original Hoboken site. and TheMontclairGirl.com is our other sister site!
Instagram: @thelocalgirlHQ / @thehobokengirl / @themontclairgirl (my personal is @thejennifertrip)
Other: Tiktok – @thehobokengirl / @thelocalgirlHQ / @themontclairgirl
Image Credits
Will Ferman (dog image of me) ABC (barbara corcoran/rachael ray pic)