Interested In Advertising On Our Website?

Until recently, only our Neighborhood News print advertisers could advertise on our NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net website, which averages more than 30,000 legitimate “hits” every month — people who log on to actually read our exclusive content — and some stories have generated more than 50,000 hits in a single day. The most recent to generate huge numbers were our breaking story about the new Wesley Chapel Contract Postal Unit opening soon and our story about the “Two Curley Rds.” 

Call (813) 910-2575 or email Jannah at ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com for more information about both print and online advertising with the Neighborhood News!

Why The Neighborhood News Is Still Your Best Local News Source

Gary Nager

I have to admit that I was really excited to see (on Mar. 26) WFTS-TV’s ABC Action News set up its “Good Morning Tampa Bay” morning show outside the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, where my wife Jannah is the director of marketing for RADDSports, which manages the programs at the campus. 

“Good Morning Wesley Chapel” was the fifth stop on the morning show’s ongoing tour of Tampa Bay communities, so I had hopes to find some new information that maybe managing editor John Cotey, videographer Charmaine George and I haven’t been able to bring you because we’re a three-person team, while ABC Action News has an entire team of reporters, anchors and producers who created multiple features between 5 a.m.-7 a.m. that day about our area.

As a 27-year veteran of covering the news and information coming out of Wesley Chapel, I have to say that I was expecting more  — and better — information coming out of that show.

First of all, anchor Deiah Riley started off by calling the Sports Campus the Sports Complex and repeated throughout the morning that the Sports Campus features 16 volleyball courts and eight (at first she said 18) basketball courts (both correct), plus 56 fencing “lanes” and 8 wrestling mats?

Here’s the thing — the Sports Campus does have room for that number of fencing pistes (the correct term) and wrestling mats, but has yet (or any plans) to host a fencing or wrestling event. There was no mention of the Sports Campus’ state-of-the-art cheerleading facility, indoor and outdoor soccer under the direction of former Tampa Bay Rowdies head coach Stuart Campbell or the Yo Murphy Performance training area we told you about in our Feb. 16 issue. 

OK, so the producers of “Good Morning Wesley Chapel” obviously didn’t read any recent issues of the Neighborhood News to get their information, but there were mistakes and discrepancies throughout the morning.

Screenshot, Deiah Riley

For example, Riley’s pre-recorded report mistakenly repeated multiple times during those two hours that the ever-expanding Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. is part of the county’s sports tourism efforts and re-branding as “Florida’s Sports Coast” — when the WCDP always has been intended for local residents (unlike the Sports Campus). That report also said that WCDP’s inclusive playground (the first of its kind in Pasco) was paid for by impact fees without mentioning the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, AdventHealth, the Lennar Foundation and others who gave money for that project.

And, speaking of sports tourism, there was no mention of AdventHealth Center Ice, in the heart of Wesley Chapel, or the Sarah Vande Berg Tennis & Wellness Center in nearby Zephyrhills.

Plus, while there was a short feature about the new Grove Theater, there was no interview clip with developer Mark Gold, nor any mention of The Grove’s coming-soon KRATE container park, which will bring dozens of new eateries to Wesley Chapel. The theater piece also mentioned its sushi bar, but not the Bistro restaurant.

And, while there were good stats provided about the rise in average home prices in Wesley Chapel, the Realtor interviewed is based out of South Tampa and featured an interview with a family who bought a home with a large body of water behind it which likely also wasn’t located in Wesley Chapel. 

The two best features were about Wesley Chapel youngsters, one of which was an update on Janiah Hinds, who we featured back in August 2020 for her “Slay it Proud” T-shirt line. The other was an excellent “Deiah’s Brag Book” feature about 12-year-old soccer player Peyton Wheatley, who suffered a life-threatening event back in late Feb., too late to get the story in our Mar. 16 issue. To help Peyton’s family, visit GoFundMe.com and search “Peyton’s Road to Recovery.”  

My ‘25 Years Of Neighborhood News’ Celebration Rocked Bayscape Bistro!

Office & sales assistant Janet Levins checks in readers at our “25 Years of Neighborhood News” Celebration at Bayscape Bistro.

When I purchased Neighborhood News on February 26, 1994, with a former partner, I had no idea I’d still be doing the same job 25 years later. 

At that time, this was a once-a-month, quarter-folded direct mail newspaper with only “spot” color (not full color) on four pages,that was delivered to 6,500 households in what wasn’t even yet referred to as “New Tampa.” Our only Wesley Chapel distribution back then were the few hundred copies that were being dropped off each month at the Meadow Pointe I clubhouse. I quickly added mailing to the first few hundred homes in the original portion of Meadow Pointe, as well as to the few hundred homes in the community surrounding Saddlebrook Resort.

All I knew then was that, in addition to homes, roads with no traffic signals and thousands of heads of cattle, the areas that would one day be called New Tampa and Wesley Chapel had a lot of vacant land, most of which already had development plans in place. I started calling the phone numbers on every sign along both Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in New Tampa (at that time, the portion in Pasco County was only known as County Road 581) and Cross Creek Blvd.

And even though the Neighborhood News I purchased already had a reasonable number of advertisers, I knew that the key to getting people to actually read the publication was to tell them about the plans for the new developments coming to their community.

Celebration attendees got to enjoy delicious appetizers.

As you can see from the first few of the 50 covers (see gallery below), I and my “staff” of one part-time writer/editor made sure that we told the residents in my two distribution areas everything we could about the plans for the homes, apartments, businesses, roads, libraries, churches and recreational opportunities that were coming “in the future.”

Well, 25 years later, I and my still-small staff of one outstanding full-time managing editor, a few great freelance writers and a few in-house support staffers continue to give you more news and information about everything that is still coming to our now-separate distribution areas.

A certain publisher plays to the crowd.

The 50 Neighborhood News front pages include an average of two covers per year for every year we’ve been in business, although there are a few years along the way that didn’t make it to these pages — not because nothing “important” happened those years, but because most of these front pages are about “firsts,” meaning the first story we published (and believe me, especially in the beginning, no other local news media covered most of the stories we did) about a particular subject affecting our readers. 

In order to give you that true historical perspective in a small amount of available space, there aren’t nearly as many covers from the era of 2015 until the present, even though managing editor John C. Cotey has probably broken as many big news stories in those 3+ years as I did between 1994-2000, but most of you have been here for most of John’s biggest stories, whereas the vast majority of our readers weren’t living here from the start.

But, What About The Party?

So, even though my anniversary of buying the paper was actually in February of ‘94, my first issue as the publisher and editor was April of that year. In addition, as we told you on last issue’s cover, I got married in late March, so I didn’t really want to host the party until after that event.

I was thrilled that Eddie Bujarski and his wife Lourdes, the owners of the Bayscape Bistro in the Heritage Isles Golf Club on Cross Creek Blvd. in New Tampa, agreed to not only host the party on April 12, but also to put out a beautiful spread of both hot and cold munchies for what turned out to be more than 100 guests. I, of course, provided a karaoke DJ for the event, just as I had done at our first “Meet the Publisher” karaoke party way back in May of ‘94.

But, most of the folks who attended the 25th anniversary event weren’t there to sing (even though Jannah and I and some of our friends may have been) — almost every reader who attended said they just wanted to be there to thank me for being an important part of their lives here in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. We had folks from Epperson to the north and Tampa Palms to the south, and from Lexington Oaks to the west to K-Bar Ranch to the east attend and many came in groups of people who all had at least one thing in common — they all love the Neighborhood News!

I also was thrilled that several of our wonderful advertisers also found time to check out the celebration — and find out more about our new Video & Online Subscriptions. Among the attendees were Realtors Karen Tillman-Gosselin and her husband Renynold Gosselin, James and Alexis Staten of Olympus Pools, Pam Edmonson of Creative Permanent Makeup by Pam, Derek Usman of Usman Law Firm and Ramses Garcia of Las Palmas Latin Grill all showed up to party with me, Jannah, John, office and sales assistant Janet Levins, senior video producer Gavin Olsen and his assistant Charmaine George.

As you can see, there are a lot of front pages we’ve had to leave out to keep the number of our historic covers at only 50, especially from 2017-present. 

Even so, pictured here are (left-right and top-bottom)our historic win as Small Business of the Year from what was then known as the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce; Wesley Chapel resident Mike Moore’s first election to the Pasco County Board of Commissioners; the Grand Opening of the Tampa Premium Outlets; our first story about the indoor sports complex which is finally beginning construction in Wiregrass; our first cover story about the “Connected City”; our story about the definitive history of Wesley Chapel being published by a local author; our WCNT-tv Preview Party; the opening of what was then known as Florida Hospital Center Ice; the first Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel hosted at the skating complex; our first explanation of the Diverging Diamond Intersection; a visit with the first families that moved into Epperson, prior to the opening of the Crystal LagoonsÂź amenity that is now open to the public (pg. 5); John’s great story about all of the new pizza places (almost all of which are now open) coming to Wesley Chapel; our nominee for our best New Tampa cover headline ever (“Bruce B. Done”) and a certain publisher’s nuptials from last issue. Impressive, right? — GN   

Get On The Guest List Now To Celebrate My 25 Years Of Neighborhood News!

So, even though I’ve also had a lot of haters over the 25 years I have owned and been the editor of the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News, the fact is that I get the most amazing feedback from all of you — our readers — about what we do to bring our communities together.

A case in point is our now-finalized plan to celebrate my 25 years at the helm of the primary news and information source for New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents and businesses. Even though we didn’t (at that time) yet know when the celebration would be held, we’ve still have at least 60 people register to be part of that celebration — and another 30 or so of our advertising business owners who say they plan to attend.

So, let’s see how many of you will register to be on our guest list now that we are officially announcing the details of that little shindig.

Although my 25-year anniversary was actually February 25 of this year, the celebration will be held on Friday, April 12, at the awesome Bayscape Bistro at Heritage Isles Country Club (off Cross Creek Blvd.), with heavy hors d’oeuvres being put out at around 6 p.m. and karaoke with my friend Gary Carmichael of Heart & Soul Karaoke kicking the musical festivities into high gear by 7 p.m.

The food will be outstanding, as Bayscape owners Eddie and Lourdes Bujarski (who ran the culinary arts program at New Tampa’s Wharton High for nearly two decades) will put out everything from fruit and cheese to some of Bayscape’s Friday Fiesta fare like tacos, fajitas and more. We’re still working on an exact menu (and Bayscape’s complete menu will still be available for purchase) and the bar will be a cash bar, but this is a unique opportunity to hang out with not only my amazing staff at the Neighborhood News, but also the owners of many of the businesses you see advertised in every issue of this publication.     

So, all you have to do to be part of the celebration is email us from a valid email address with your first and last name, the community you live in (Tampa Palms, Live Oak Preserve, etc.) and the first and last names of any other people you plan to bring with you.

There is no admission fee to attend my “25 years of Neighborhood News” celebration, but you’re not officially on the guest list until you receive a confirmation email from us. If you want to get an idea of how crazy Jannah and I and some of our friends are about karaoke, check out my article on page 44 of our latest New Tampa issue. 

And no, you don’t have grab a mic to sing at all to attend, but you do have to email us at Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com and put “Neighborhood News Guest List” in the subject line! See you there!

The Latest On Google…

It’s been almost exactly two months since we were among only 23 news organizations in the U.S. and 87 worldwide to receive funding support from Google — and lead video producer Gavin Olsen, our new in-house videographer/video editor Charmaine George and managing editor John Cotey and I are all pretty excited  about how things are going. As you’re receiving this issue, you have the opportunity to watch a new “Neighborhood Dining News” segment with owner Steve Falabella of 900° Woodfired Pizza at the Shops at Wiregrass mall, our second “Chappie Chatter” segment with Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page administrator Jennifer Ames and even a new video about Liberty Middle School’s human hot fudge sundae.

Many of our latest videos have done very well for us, both on Facebook and on our WCNT-tv (Wesley Chapel & New Tampa television) YouTube channel.

Of the videos that we have released since my last update in these pages, our video about the new Twistee Treat in Wesley Chapel has been viewed 8,500 times, our story about the Pasco County School District’s planned purchase of property for a new school in Wesley Chapel has been viewed 5,600 times and our video about Wharton’s boys basketball team defeating the Freedom boys in the Regional playoffs has been viewed 4,600 times.

And, although I wasn’t available to go myself, Gavin and I were invited to travel to New York City to be part of a global conference call among all of the news organizations who received funding from Google. He surely will report about that conference in our next issue.

And, by the time this issue reaches your mailbox, most of our existing print advertisers and many people who have requested information about our video and online subscriptions will have received that information. 

So, if you’re interested in having a Featured Business video produced about your business, or you’re interested in the only truly multimedia advertising opportunity for businesses in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, please email us at Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com ASAP!

And, look for more info in these pages about our soon-to-launch new website — NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net! 

The Basics For Developing Your Brand

By definition, branding is:

The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.

Thriving businesses are those with successful and effective branding. Depending on the type of business you run, you might want to consider some of these branding tips before you begin advertising. Let’s cover some of the basics:

Know your target audience

Most likely, you have a specific “target” audience you want to pursue with your product or service. Making sure you understand the needs and wants of your audience will help you develop campaigns and strategies that will reach them more effectively than by just throwing random advertisements out there. These days, creating “organic” reach is extremely important to a business’ brand. People are coming to you because of who you are (your culture, things you stand for, etc.), not just for your product/service. Trying to reach every person in every demographic can hurt your brand, almost diluting it.

People can see passion

Passion leads to long-term success, and it’s obvious when a business is passionate about its product or service. Anyone can build a successful business in the short-term. If you’re super enthusiastic about something you do, it’s only natural that the right people will want to follow you. Followers lead to word-of-mouth advertising, and positive referrals (more organic reach). When you’re passionate about something, it also makes you try a lot harder to save your business if things start to go south.

Be consistent

People come back to a business expecting the same, if not better, service that they received the previous time. Because businesses are so connected through social media, word travels fast, and it’s just as simple to find a replacement for your business if you become inconsistent.

Be distinct

Everyone wants to be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Oprah. What did their brands do to create the enormous empires they built in their fields? They created innovative products, ideas and ways of life. Even if you’re offering a product or service that many other businesses offer, what can you do to stand out from the crowd? Another huge brand, Netflix, dominates online streaming. What makes it different from its competitors such as Hulu, Showtime or HBO GO? Netflix continues to adapt. The company sponsors high quality, original programming. Netflix allow complete user control, focusing on what the consumer wants, and not just adding random features. The company has weeded out competitors because of the freedom and flexibility it gives consumers. At the end of the day, you can’t really beat $8 a month for unlimited streaming, either. Make sure your brand can hold its own, and find its niche.

Design basics

The first thing people see is color. It could be on your logo or the colors in your venue. They set the mood and have an affect whether you or the customer realizes it. There are a ton of color psychology theories out there where you can find the one that fits your image  best. Consider it a starting point if you have no idea where to begin. We’ll get into elements of design in a later post.

Maybe the first things you think about when you hear “brand” are cool colors, a logo or a tagline. Those are all super important to the overall aesthetics of your brand, but there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes planning to do before you bring your brand out into the world. This is why figuring out what you want your product or service to represent can tremendously help your future advertising campaigns. It’s much more difficult to fix a brand’s image than it is to carefully create it from scratch.