On February 25, 2014, I will celebrate my 20th anniversary as the owner, publisher and editor of this publication and I am extremely proud to say that 2013 was my best year ever, in terms of both revenue and even in the positive response we’ve always received from our advertisers and readers.
Even so, my outstanding general manager Nikki Bennett (who is in her fifth year with me and largely responsible for getting us to this lofty point in our history) and I are doing anything but resting on our laurels. In fact, we’ve hired local consultant and long-time Hunter’s Green resident Jerry Hurley of Business Sense Solutions — who has helped many local businesses the last several years and has insisted that many of those clients advertise with us if they want to do business in New Tampa and/or Wesley Chapel — to help us formulate and set into motion the best possible plan for us to reinvest in and grow our business so we can have another 20 years of success, despite what is still, supposedly, a sluggish local economy.
I’ll be updating you in this space about those plans for our local “business branding” company as they’re being finalized, but I can assure you that everything we do will continue to be of the same quality (in words, pictures and community service) you’ve grown to expect from us, as well as show why we’re different than any other media company based in and serving New Tampa or Wesley Chapel. And, unlike many other successful smaller publishing companies (of which there seems to be fewer and fewer each year; I did say “successful”) across this great country of ours, the expansion of our services and opportunities to promote your business will NOT include new publications distributed in markets other than our two primary existing distribution areas.
I hope you’re at least intrigued, because all of us are truly excited about what’s ahead for not only the rest of 2014, but for many years to come.
For example, although I’ve loved being in the Shoppes at Amberly plaza in Tampa Palms the last dozen years or more, there’s no doubt that our office space was never laid out the way I wanted and even though it was always plenty big enough to suit our needs, the way the space itself was laid out was never what I would call very effective.
To that end, Nikki and I were ecstatic when a very unique local office space became available and, even though it’s located on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel, it’s actually an easier location to get in and out of and will actually allow us to better serve both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel.
You may remember that a little before last year’s Taste of New Tampa, I mentioned in this space that we had started doing some multi-media productions with Carlos Flores-Gordon’s Milorian Studios, a beautiful film, audio and website production studio located in the Brookside Professional Park, the first office plaza located just east of the traffic light and entrance to Saddlebrook Resort Tampa on S.R. 54 (a little more than a mile or so east of both Bruce B. Downs {BBD} Blvd. and I-75), on the same side of 54.
From a purely geographic standpoint — with both S.R. 54 and BBD in Wesley Chapel having recently been expanded and improved and with I-75 in that area being widened now — it suddenly has gotten a lot easier for us to get to anywhere from Zephyrhills to Land O’Lakes to our east and west, respectively, and to all of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, in just a few short minutes.
But, as Carlos said when we first started working on a few preliminary projects together about a year ago, there is a lot of “synergy” between our two companies. My B.S. (fitting?) degree from the University of Florida was actually in Broadcast News and my goal has always been to provide TV and radio (and now, web) programming for local residents and new advertising opportunities for our clients — and Carlos has everything we need to bring those ideas to fruition.
Our new address, if you want to stop in and check it out, is 29157 Chapel Park Dr., Wesley Chapel 33543, on the second floor of the free-standing two-story building in the Brookside Professional Park where Milorian Studios now only has the first floor.
But, here’s an even better way to check us out — on Thursday, March 6, beginning at 5 p.m., we will have a joint New Tampa and Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting ceremony and Gary’s 20th Anniversary Party (21 & older only!) at our new office. And rest assured, it’ll be special. We’ll have free wine tastings provided by my friend and local wine expert Hector Gonzalez of Toast Fine Wines & Café on BBD, a free upscale whiskey tasting, five hours of karaoke entertainment with room for dancing, and best of all, an opportunity for everyone who attends to be recorded on camera in Milorian’s awesome first-floor professional TV studio. You can rave about the paper (or at me), tell us about your advertising success in our publications or just promote your own business for 30 seconds. A few days after the party, we’ll run a continuous loop on the front page of our website — WCNeighborhoodNews.com — of all of your on-camera comments.
So, come on out and tell your friends. We’re kicking off my next 20 years right!
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