We’ll share some of the mileposts of 15 years of Press Pros Magazine. What we’ve seen, what we’ve heard, and the reality that sometimes the only people who believe in what you’re doing…are the people who helped you do it.
This week marks a milestone for us…for me personally…and about 20 others who have had a daily hand in making Press Pros Magazine available.
It was August 10, 2010 when we published for the first time, and I wish I could remember what that first story was about. But the archives are now limited to five years because of server space, and no one back then ever thought to save #1 for posterity.
A lot has changed, and nothing, or no one, more than me. There’s a lot that I don’t do like I used to, or believe about people, policies and priorities. And as for priorities, someone asked me at last week’s PBA event in Coldwater why I hadn’t written much about high school football yet? And my answer was…it doesn’t seem as important as it used to be!
I’ve actually spent most of the summer working out in my garden, which I enjoy immensely. I froze a lot of sweet corn, peaches out of my orchard, and will can somewhere near 100 quarts of tomato juice before next Friday’s Week 1 predictions page.
What do I do with that much tomato juice? I drink a glass most days, cook with it, and frankly give a lot of it away to friends. New Bremen volleyball coach Diana Kramer has a standing order. When you come to do one of our matches, bring some tomato juice.
In fifteen years there have been too many highs and lows to count…too many revelations.
The highs, of course, begin with the success of the site itself. We now average about a million readers a month, and five times that many actual page views. Press Pros is read in all 88 Ohio counties and about two-thirds of the United States from people who live outside the area, but who grew up in Ohio.
The ironies and “I-told-you-sos” over 15 years bring a smile.
I originally presented the concept to the former owner of WPTW radio, when I worked for Frontier Broadcasting. He not only said no…he said ‘hell no’ and all but asked for my keys to the building. Two months later, on August 1, 2010, I gave him those keys. Two weeks later we ran our first post.
A banker at the time turned it down, convinced that online sports would never fly, or be relevant as an independent entity. Those were the first of many doors slammed in our face. Today, the numbers speak for themselves.
For you metric geeks out there, here’s another irony. Google Analytics nearly convinced me to quit before I ever got started. It took a chance meeting with John Howenstein, at a company called Web Awareness, in Morristown, New Jersey, to show me that there were actually three times more people reading us than what Google counted in those early years. Words to the wise.
The lows have been very personal…the loss of so many of our original contributors to the site.
Jim Morris was our original outdoors writer. Enormously popular, he was a big man with a big heart. He’s been gone for nearly a decade.
In 2015 my college roommate, and friend, Dale Meggas, a long-time contributor with Cleveland media… a Press Pros original…died of a heart attack.
Stan Wilker, as good a friend and person to have in your midst as there ever was, died suddenly in 2018. That was heart-breaking!
Another outdoor writer, Tom Cappell survived a heart valve transplant in 2018, but passed three years later. One of the best story tellers of hunting and fishing I ever knew.
This past February, Ohio State football and baseball writer Mark Znidar passed, unexpectantly – as talented as they come.
And of course, it hurt just as much to have associate Julie Wright’s son, Morgan, die a year ago by unthinkable circumstances.
All of that in 15 years, including the loss of both parents and too many individuals to even list. Time passes, and you pass with it.
One of our proof readers recently asked about what’s changed in those 15 years. And here’s what I told him.
We trusted people, and our leaders, a whole lot more back then than we do presently.
Contemporary media has become so biased you don’t know what to believe.
We didn’t think about corruption a decade ago. Now it’s so evident you don’t even question. Turns out the Old Testament prophets were right, after all.
There was a time when we actually did ‘what’s best for kids’.
For the sake of inclusion we’ve made it so easy to win a trophy that trophies don’t mean anything, anymore.
And what’s the good news, he also asked.
The best news is simply this. If you want to start a business, be patient to nurture and grow it, manage and plan for the days when nothing goes right…you can still do it. Of course, you’re going to get the hell taxed out of you, but you learn to plan for that, too.
I remember an Obama quote from 2012, when he addressed a gathering of small businessmen, and said, “If you’ve got a business you didn’t build it on your own. The [government] helped you do it.”
No,…it didn’t. Hal McCoy, Greg Hoard, Chick Ludwig, Jim Morris, Stan Wilker, Joe Neves, Tim Boeckman, Dale Meggas, Jeff Gilbert, Alan Brads, Julie Wright, Dan Huff, Mark Znidar, Greg Billing, Bruce Hooley, Jarrod Ulrey, Steve Blackledge, Lee Woolery and Brian Bayless…we really did do this on our own.
And is the best yet to come?
Who can tell in this day and time – right and wrong…winning doesn’t matter, it’s how you play the game…and of course, everyone deserves a trophy.
But this I can tell you. Business is still hard. There aren’t many high fives. But we’ve endured, and we’re grateful for every one of you who have made this site a daily habit – your kind words and your friendship.
How much longer?
No one’s counting anymore. Probably for as long as I can make my own juice.
But we’re going to write it straight, win or lose, for as long as we’re here. Because 50 years from now (or even another 15), someone might want to read about what happened.
And believe it…as the truth.
