After officially launching on November 22, 2010, Lincoln Local has amassed over 500 subscribers for their weekly online publication that features a variety of deals offered by local businesses. The publication’s website, lincolnlocal.com, is catching the eye of both Lincoln business owners and members of the Lincoln community.

The website is run by Andrew and Melissa Fuller, two former Hollywood producers whose resumes include hit shows like Modern Marvels and Viva La Bam. Melissa is a North Bend native who graduated from UNL in Broadcast Journalism and worked on a few Alexander Payne movies like About Schmidt and Election. Andrew is from Seattle and moved down to Los Angeles in 1996 after he graduated from the University of Washington. The two met in the animation department at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California and moved to Lincoln in the summer of 2009.

The husband and wife team own Green Room Media, under which Lincoln Local is produced. Andrew explains:

“Green Room Media is an Umbrella company that’s kind of a three-pronged approach.  We do Lincoln Local, a website focusing on everything Lincoln. It’s business, arts, music, events and a lot of things. Then we have ‘My Greatest Days’ which is for weddings and special location videography. And we have Green Room Media itself which is our own little boutique video production company which is going to open itself up to doing anything that relates to video.”

In addition to offering coupons and promotions from local businesses, Lincoln Local also provides information on events happening downtown and features profiles of bands that are coming to Lincoln. Each week, they also spotlight one business by shooting, editing and producing a video for them and posting it online to share with their followers.  Andrew said the businesses they feature typically have something unique to offer Lincoln.

“Every week we want to have a spotlight business, a music presence, an artist, and an event that we are involved in that is connected with some kind of fundraising. We’re getting an archive together and eventually we’re going to have hundreds of restaurants and business and if you want to know something about them then you can go to our archives and watch a video and get some information on them.”

Green Room Media produces the spotlight videos for the businesses free of charge and posts them on Lincoln Local.

“It’s a way for us to get to know people, to get connected to the whole inner circle of Lincoln businesses, and we’ve learned that it’s a tight-knit community and it’s nice to be able to do things and feel like we’re a part of it,” he said.

Lincoln Local is currently doing a student video contest in which they’ll give away a flip camera every other week to the winners of the contest.

“We want to be part of the campus environment and be a source for more Lincoln individuals, in this case, students, and hopefully they’ll go and watch the videos, but also learn about the business we’re featuring that week; maybe learn about a non-profit or maybe see some art that they like.”

Since its inception, Lincoln Local has had aims of being heavily involved in the community. On February 28th, the publication teamed up with Ivanna Cone for Ivanna Sample, a fundraiser for the William G. Lauer Foundation for ALS and Charities. Lincoln Local donated $2 to the foundation for every new subscriber they received.

“We genuinely want to see Lincoln do well. We want to have people that come into town see what the great businesses here have to offer and provide a forum for people to see why they’re valuable to the community.”

In April, Andrew said Lincoln Local plans to work with The Black Market during the week leading up to their fashion show and will be given a donated pair of Tom’s Shoes by the downtown clothing store to auction off on their website for charity.

Andrew said he hopes to keep growing the site in terms of its offerings and eventually move to the heart of the city in an office that overlooks O Street.

“We want to have a presence downtown, just so we can feel that pulse.”

With their tireless promotion of locally owned businesses and continuous involvement in the Lincoln community, area residents should be thankful that Andrew and Melissa chose the star city over a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Lincoln Local has featured businesses such as Maggie’s Vegetarian Café, The Public, Gomez Art Supply and several others on their website. If you have a business that you’d like to have featured on Lincoln Local, contact them at 402.937.3553.