The Ever-Changing Face Of Our Neighborhood News Online Videos

Gary Nager

When I first started what was then called WCNT-TV (Wesley Chapel New Tampa Television) with a partner in 2016, my intent was to create something of a hyperlocal TV news station that would one day become a 24-hour “channel” featuring news and informational content solely about New Tampa and Wesley Chapel.

A couple of years later, not only had I taken over complete control of our online content from that former partner, we began focusing on short news and informational videos about the people, businesses and restaurants in our communities. That same year, as I was re-branding our online video content as NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net, with the help of a former producer, I applied for — and was stunned to receive — one of only 86 grants worldwide (and one of only 23 in the U.S.) from Google to expand that video content, as part of the online giant’s attempt to combat the growing proliferation of “fake news” online. 

I was told by Google that even though our Neighborhood News print editions were only about two tiny (but growing) markets, a big reason we received a grant was because we had been in the business of providing real news to and for the residents and businesses of these two small submarkets of the Tampa Bay area for 26 years.

And, that grant money from Google did help us expand our online presence from an average of one video release every two weeks to more than two releases each week of 2019.

Unfortunately, Google didn’t see fit to provide us with another grant for 2020 in order to keep that momentum going the following year, which then ended up also being the year that Covid-19 changed everybody’s business.

Thanks to a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, however, I was able to retain and continue paying all of our employees, including videographer/video producer Charmaine George, but with most people not venturing out of their homes, and working mainly from home from March through much of the summer last year, it was harder for us to continue putting out the same amount of content and even harder to create and release content that people wanted to watch, despite having so much less to do outside.

Even so, we were still able to put out more than two video releases per week, with 74 total releases for 2020, which were viewed nearly 200,000 times, with a Facebook (search “Neighborhood News”) reach of more than 300,000, bringing our overall viewership to close to 2 million through our first five years.

 Our ten most-viewed videos of 2020 (all of which were viewed more than 5,000 times each, reaching an average of 12,000+ people each on Facebook) were primarily about new business and restaurant openings, especially Aldi, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County (which had three of our top-10), The Grove, Aussie Grill, Main Event and Pasta di Guy.

Our pace for new video releases has slowed somewhat in 2021, and fewer of you have been watching them, although we also have been encouraged by the fact that our most-watched video ever was our exclusive sneak peek of the all-new Grove Theater (photo) in January, which has, to date, been viewed by more than 32,000 people with a Facebook reach of more than 53,000. We also have had decent viewership of videos about New Tampa’s new Fresh Kitchen and others.

To that end, our plan is to greatly expand our focus on dining and new business opening videos for the rest of 2021. So, if you or someone you know has a new business or one opening soon in either of our distribution areas, please email me at ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com.

Thanks for watching!

Neighborhood News Online Celebrates Six Months Of Google-Funded Videos!

When we received the first installment of our funding from the Google News Initiative on January 14, we made a number of promises to our benefactors regarding the number of videos we’d put online, the number of people we’d hire to shoot, edit and be on-air talent for those videos and the equipment we would need to fulfill our commitments.

As this issue is reaching you, it has now been six months since we received that funding and I’d have to say that we are right on track.

To me, the most important milestone for us to reach was the increase in the number of videos we would be releasing. Before our Google funding, we averaged one video every other week. But, we have now put out 41 videos in 21 weeks (with several videos in the can getting ready for release at out press time) since Jan. 14, or an average of at least two each week. 

And, more and more of you are watching those videos. In the nearly three years since we first started Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television (WCNT-tv) — which we now call NeighborhoNewsOnline.net (search “Neighborhood News” on Facebook or “WCNT-tv”  on YouTube) — we have flown past one million total views and nearly two million people reached on Facebook.

The 41 videos we have put online since January alone have been viewed more than 210,000 times and have reached more than 354,000 people. Perhaps even more important is that those 41 videos have received a total of more than 36,000 “engagements” (Likes, Shares & Comments), or an average of more than 900 per video! How many local videos/posts do you know of that have had 1,000 engagements?

We continue to reach our biggest audience whenever we put out videos about food, as our two videos about the opening of the new Chick-fil-A on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel each garnered more than 12,000 views and combined reached more than 35,000 people. Our biggest reach this year has been achieved by our video about the new Smallcakes Cupcakery in Tampa Palms, which also had more than 12,000 views, and a reach of more than 22,000 people!

Even more recently, my “Neighborhood Dining News” segment about Hummingbird Jerk House and Full Circle Pizza released on May 29 already has been viewed more than 7,000 times and reached more than 11,000 people.

En Español, Tambien?    

Although I also have several more lined up to start as this issue is reaching your mailbox, we currently have four print advertisers who have begun sponsoring our videos and online content, as part of their Video & Online “Subscription” program, where each of them will receive a Video Business Feature.

Those advertisers are Total Air Solutions, Creative Permanent Makeup by Pam Edmonson, Omari’s Grill at Lexington Oaks Golf Club and KAP Medical Group. We have not yet released the Video Business Features for Total Air or Omari’s, but only the video for Omari’s had not yet been produced at our press time.

However, Total Air, which was our first “subscriber,” has already been shown as a sponsor of eight videos in seven weeks, and those videos have been viewed more than 50,000 times, with a Facebook reach of nearly 89,000 people and nearly 7,000 engagements. Creative Permanent Makeup by Pam has sponsored seven videos in six weeks, and those videos have been viewed more than 40,000 times, with a FB reach of more than 68,000 and more than 6,000 engagements. Omari’s had only sponsored two videos at our press time, but they had been viewed more than 7,000 times, with a FB reach of nearly 15,000, with nearly 700 engagements.

And, thanks to Omari’s co-owner Susana Herrera, who spent 20 years as a reporter and anchor in her native Colombia, including eight years on the Colombian CBN Network, our KAP Medical video was shot in English (with yours truly asking the questions) and in Spanish (with Susana interviewing fellow Latina Dr. Karina Parilo en Español). We plan to do a lot more with Spanish language videos in the future, so stay tuned! For advertising information, call (813) 910-2575!     

After 25 years, still delivering news and entertainment in new ways

So, now that we’re officially part of the Google News Initiative — one of only 23 U.S. companies to receive financial support for their news operations from the world’s largest tech company — a lot of people have been asking me what to expect in terms of our promised new formats and new online programming.

Some of what we’ll be doing with Google’s funding — in addition to making major changes to all of our online content (more on this below) — will be business as usual, there will just be more frequent releases.

We will still have News Desks with yours truly and former Bay News 9 reporter Susanna Martinez. I also will continue to provide Neighborhood Dining News and Entertainment segments. We’ll also have more North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) Featured Business segments with our Featured Business host Mollyana Ward (see top right photo), as well as occasional news updates from the Chamber itself. For example, Mollyana recently interviewed Chamber president & CEO Hope Allen (photo below) and those segments have been getting a lot of views, both on YouTube and on Facebook. 

But, we’re also working on a lot of new stuff, too, like the recently posted fun new segment featuring Jennifer Ames, the administrator of the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page, which has more than 16,000 members. This is our first effort to tap into the power of local online resources outside of our own website (NTNeighborhoodNews.com), “Neighborhood News” Facebook page and our WCNT-tv YouTube channel.

Jennifer’s first segments have just been released and I think you’ll really enjoy them. Her personality is a big part of why the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page is so popular and it definitely shines through in her first interview with me in front of the camera. Jen’s “Chappie Chatter” segments will be a light-hearted look at what’s been “blowing up” her Facebook page and I’ll be really surprised if Neighborhood News readers and Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television viewers alike don’t love the “Chatter.” 

Our senior video producer Gavin Olsen and I also have released the full video of each of our recent interviews on our WCNT-tv YouTube channel and then cut the videos into individual segments for release on Facebook, Instagram and our current website. 

One thing we really want you to do is subscribe to our YouTube channel and start watching the full-length videos there.  

As for our other programming ideas, we’re keeping them under wraps for now, but you can expect several more announcements about those new video/online segments in these pages very soon.

25 Years, Eh?

Yes, on February 25, 2019, yours truly will celebrate 25 years as the owner, publisher and editor of the Neighborhood News. Milestone or no milestone, I recognize that the state of the print business is changing and (even though “niche” publications like ours are the ones people will still read today), the fact is that if we don’t change some of the ways we do things, we could go the way of not only the dinosaur, but also of daily newspapers and general interest magazines around the country.

 As I touched on in my last page 3 editorial, a big part of the changes to come this year is that all of our videos, “Neighborhood News” Facebook posts and our news magazine’s website will soon fall under one new umbrella — NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net, the “Online Network Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel.”

The new website currently only has a basic landing page, but we hope to roll it out in full to coincide with my 25th anniversary at the helm of Neighborhood News next month.

Nibbles and Bytes: Bahama Breeze Opening Soon

A sign (see top photo on next page) on the building indicates that Bahama Breeze Island Grill, which is getting ready to open just east of Chuy’s Tex-Mex on the north side of S.R. 56, will open to the public on Monday, July 16. We’re trying to make sure we get an invite to the friends & family pre-opening, so look for a sneak peek on WCNT-tv before Bahama Breeze opens. Fresh seafood + live music one mile from where we live means Jannah and I will be frequenting Bahama Breeze…frequently.

‱Also opening in July, next to Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt in the Shops at Wiregrass, is Nothing Bundt Cakes, which has been among the favorites at each of the last two Tastes of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel. At our press time, those amazingly moist bundt cakes with perfectly creamy icing still seemed to be weeks from being made or sold at this location, but a spokesperson for the store said “definitely in July.”

If you’ve still never tried Nothing Bundt Cakes, visit the N. Dale Mabry or another location before this store opens and have a couple of samples and please tell them the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News sent you!  You’ll be waiting with baited buttercream breath for Nothing Bundt Cakes to open here, too.

‱Not enough for you? Pomodoro Pizza, which is opening in the space previously occupied by Kwan Ming Bistro in the plaza on S.R. 56 that also is home to Wolf’s Den, also is expected to open in early- to mid-July.

Pomodoro is the first local pizzeria to admit that it has New Jersey-style pizza — which I’ve tried to tell quite a few New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents over the years — is similar to, but slightly different (in most cases) from New York-style. I’ll let the Pomodoro owners give you their take on the differences, but new pizza is never a bad thing for me to try.

‱And last, but not least, another newcomer to the same plaza as Mellow Mushroom on the north side of S.R. 56, across from the Tampa Premium Outlets, is Sweetea CafĂ©, which is still mostly a shell inside and doesn’t look like it could possibly be open before the end of July, but we’ll keep you posted.

We’ll also have updates on Earth Fare (which looks ready to go vertical), Mod Pizza (in the getting-much-closer-to-completion building next to Starbucks on S.R. 56, in front of Costco) and the three hotels set to open in the next next issue.

Have You Tried Bayscape Bistro?

I’m sure most residents of that community have heard that the restaurant at the Heritage Isles Golf & Country Club off Cross Creek Blvd. in New Tampa has changed hands again, following a $1.3-million investment by the Heritage Isles Community Development District (CDD) to revamp the club house and the restaurant that rarely has been much more than a place for hungry golfers to stop and have a sandwich and a cold beer.

No matter how nice the renovations may be, unless the CDD found the right operator for the restaurant — one that could attract people who don’t live in Heritage Isles to check it out — it was likely to fail again.

Well, not only is the new Bayscape Bistro & Bar at Heritage Isles significantly more attractive looking than anything else that has occupied the space before, some of you may recognize the name of the guy who owns and operates it — and who has provided a much more restaurant-like menu than any of his predecessors.

Edward Bujarski, who ran one of the first and most successful high school culinary arts programs in Hillsborough County at New Tampa’s Wharton High for 17 years, is genuinely excited to bring real, fresh food to Cross Creek Blvd. near Morris Bridge Rd. and to be able to hire some of his former students to work at Bayscape.

I first visited Bayscape few days before we went to press with this issue, but the Bayscape chef salad I started with combines greens, roasted chicken, mojo pork, cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers and four crispy seasoned pieces of grilled toast that I assure you are better than any croutons you’ll have anywhere.

Look for more about Bujarski’s new venture in a future issue, but go check it out and tell the happy crew we sent you!

Bayscape Bistro & Bar (10630 Plantation Bay Dr.) is open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For more info, call (813) 994-3445 or visit BayscapeFlorida.com. 

I also spoke with Cary Anderson of Streetfront Commercial Properties, who is now leasing out the space in the Shoppes of Amberly plaza in Tampa Palms, which does have a few vacancies, including the 6,400-square-foot space previously occupied by Casa Ramos Mexican Restaurant.

Anderson says he has been close to closing a deal for the space, but that he is still looking for “something special, like a sit-down Italian or seafood restaurant or even a great sandwich place for that Casa Ramos slot.”

Amici Pizza Reopens…And The Crowd Goes Wild!!

It took so long to open that many fans on the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page of Amici Pizza — previously located in the Grand Oaks Square plaza on Wesley Chapel Blvd. in Lutz but which has been closed for a few months— was never going re-open in its new, freestanding building located less than a mile north of its old location.

Well, our Neighborhood News Facebook page and WCNT-tv — Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television — were among the first to announce last month that brothers Vincent and Rick Mannino had finally reopened at 26602 Wesley Chapel Blvd./S.R. 54, also in Lutz.

The result of our announcement was one of our most popular Facebook posts and WCNT-tv videos of 2018 — with a reach of nearly 26,000 people, 15,000+ views on YouTube and Facebook and 1,600+ likes, loves, shares and comments.

Happy Amici patrons across the area were raving about the layout and look of the new place, the food (like the true NY-style meat pizza above; photo by Gavin Olsen) and about the return of a 16-year-old local favorite. We wish the Mannino brothers luck, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to need it. We also wish Rick’s wife Tracy much success in her also-new Salon TrĂ© Anne hair salon which shares the building with Amici.

Amici Pizza is open every day for lunch & dinner. For take out & more info, call (813) 973-9734 or visit Amici-Pizza.com and please tell ‘em the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News sent you! For Salon TrĂ© Anne, call (813) 994-3553 or visit the salon’s page on Facebook.

Again, we’ll keep you posted. — GN

Editorial: Evolution Of WCNT-tv And Kayaking Editor

I hope you’re continuing to enjoy watching our WCNT-tv — Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television— segments on YouTube and Facebook. It at least appears that quite a few of your enjoy watching and sharing the segments, whether they’re “News Desks” with yours truly and my co-host Susanna Martinez or senior video editor Gavin Olsen’s outstanding slide videos, which continue to grow in popularity.

So, while we haven’t quite yet reached a million total views on Facebook and YouTube, we are approaching 700,000 total views and a total Facebook reach of more than 1.2 million people in a little less than two years (WCNT-tv debuted in June of 2016).

In fact, Gavin’s slide video a few weeks ago, about the “green” grocery store known as Earth Fare breaking ground at the corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd./S.R. 54, has been our most-viewed segment of 2018 to date, with a reach of nearly 30,000 people on Facebook, nearly 17,000 views and 1,100+ engagements (likes, comments and shares).

The most recent slide video Gavin put together for us (which also includes quite a bit of beautiful drone video footage shot by our friend Sergio Venegas of Eagle Fly Media) that was released on May 24 was about everything happening on S.R. 56 near and across from the Tampa Premium Outlets and had already reached nearly 6,000 people, with hundreds of engagements, as we went to press with this issue — only two hours after we released it!

The most recent WCNT-tv News Desk segment provides even more info about everything happening in and around the Tampa Premium Outlets. It was expected to be released shortly after Memorial Day, so I hope you’ll keep an eye out for it and let me know what you think.

The new News Desk segment also will include full captioning, so more people can watch it without having to have the volume on. Gavin and I believe that having the captioning of every episode will be a factor in finally getting us over the one million total views on YouTube and Facebook I’ve been hoping for since the show started.

Over the next couple of weeks, I also hope you’ll look for the return of WCNT-tv business correspondent Mollyana Ward, who held a North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting, after the Chamber’s own ribbon cutting at its new office, for Lagoon Realty, the local real estate company in Epperson, where the first Crystal Lagoons¼ amenity in the U.S. recently held its own Grand Opening celebration.

Also, over the next month or two, you’ll also see WCNT-tv segments updating the S.R. 54 and S.R. 56 areas near Wiregrass Ranch, and hopefully, an update from the new Bahama Breeze Island Grill opening this summer.

I also want to thank our webcast partner, the North Tampa Bay Chamber and CEO Hope Allen for continuing to support the show and this publication (see ad on pg. 12), even though it’s been a little while since Mollyana has gotten to host a Chamber Featured Business segment.

Please call (813) 910-2575 for email ads@WCNT-tv.com for information about promoting your business on our show.

Gary Won An Award? For Kayaking?

Although I was happy with how I fared in the first race I ever finished in my Neighborhood News/WCNT-tv “Banana Boat” surfski single kayak on April 14, I was even happier when I finished my second race on May 19 — The Florida Cup off Madeira Beach.

The planned 3-mile “open” race was reduced to 2.2 miles because of the inclement weather that was expected but never arrived that day, and I was thrilled to finish the race in 27:47 (less than 14 minutes per mile), which had me in 31st of 48 finishers in every type of paddling craft.

But, I was even more excited to have been the third 50+ male on a surfski single to finish the race, more than 5 minutes ahead of the fourth-place finisher.

Even so, Susanna makes fun of me again on the S.R. 56 WCNT-tv segment, but only because I scripted it that way. Check it out!