So, I'm starting a newspaper...
Technically, my partner and I are starting a newspaper. Along with raising our one-year-old son and her ten-year-old son, and buying a new home. Oh, and she recently started a new job in telehealth that turned up to 11 shortly after she started, when the covid-19 crisis made telehealth and distance treatment a new priority for her organization.
So yeah, the timing seems perfect, don't you think?
I'm probably crazy. We're probably crazy.
We're starting a print newspaper. At a time when everyone says print is dead, and more people are consuming their news media online, and already razor thin profit margins are even thinner as businesses just begin to return to something approaching normal after the closure of non-essential businesses and they may not have the same advertising budgets. Genius move on our part, right!?!
The thing is, this is important. It's more important than the money (and we need to make the money back, don't doubt it or undervalue its importance to me). But right now, with small town papers across the country closing because their corporate owners - who once thought newspapers a sound investment - aren't getting the ROI they expected, it's important that someone fill that void. It's also important that the person doing it is someone in that community. Invested in that community. Someone who cares what happens to that community. And I do.
I'm not from Carter County. I grew up in Greenup County, just north of Carter County. When I was in high school, the one time I skipped school, Grayson Lake is where we came to spend our Senior Skip Day. We made jokes about the big city of Pactolus on the band bus every time we passed through. My grandmother was from Old Town, and her mom - I learned after moving back home - was originally from Olive Hill. I have roots here, and I'm familiar with here, and I care about the news coverage in Carter County. I think its cities have potential to grow, and to lift up the surrounding communities as their collective ships rise with that tide. I know, because I was away from the area long enough to be surprised by the growth in Grayson when I first came home. And it isn't done growing. I know because I've seen the passion that the people of Olive Hill have for their community, and the way they support local events is unlike any other place I've known. I know because I have covered these communities - their celebrations, their government meetings, their heartaches and their hopes - for the last three years, and I'm not ready to stop covering that exciting potential. And since there was no more paper after the papers I worked for were closed, we decided to start one.
So, we're doing this.
Some men buy convertibles for their mid-life crisis. Some have affairs. I'm starting a newspaper. (And I'll continue to post video game content here, when I have time... between babies and dinners and running a new business with no outside assistance.)
Crazy, right?
So yeah, the timing seems perfect, don't you think?
I'm probably crazy. We're probably crazy.
We're starting a print newspaper. At a time when everyone says print is dead, and more people are consuming their news media online, and already razor thin profit margins are even thinner as businesses just begin to return to something approaching normal after the closure of non-essential businesses and they may not have the same advertising budgets. Genius move on our part, right!?!
The thing is, this is important. It's more important than the money (and we need to make the money back, don't doubt it or undervalue its importance to me). But right now, with small town papers across the country closing because their corporate owners - who once thought newspapers a sound investment - aren't getting the ROI they expected, it's important that someone fill that void. It's also important that the person doing it is someone in that community. Invested in that community. Someone who cares what happens to that community. And I do.
I'm not from Carter County. I grew up in Greenup County, just north of Carter County. When I was in high school, the one time I skipped school, Grayson Lake is where we came to spend our Senior Skip Day. We made jokes about the big city of Pactolus on the band bus every time we passed through. My grandmother was from Old Town, and her mom - I learned after moving back home - was originally from Olive Hill. I have roots here, and I'm familiar with here, and I care about the news coverage in Carter County. I think its cities have potential to grow, and to lift up the surrounding communities as their collective ships rise with that tide. I know, because I was away from the area long enough to be surprised by the growth in Grayson when I first came home. And it isn't done growing. I know because I've seen the passion that the people of Olive Hill have for their community, and the way they support local events is unlike any other place I've known. I know because I have covered these communities - their celebrations, their government meetings, their heartaches and their hopes - for the last three years, and I'm not ready to stop covering that exciting potential. And since there was no more paper after the papers I worked for were closed, we decided to start one.
So, we're doing this.
Some men buy convertibles for their mid-life crisis. Some have affairs. I'm starting a newspaper. (And I'll continue to post video game content here, when I have time... between babies and dinners and running a new business with no outside assistance.)
Crazy, right?
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