You’ll notice that this issue of the Geist Community Newsletter is a little bigger than normal. Actually, it’s our biggest issue yet. We have taken this idea of local journalism around the perimeter of Indianapolis with the Zionsville, Carmel, Fishers, and Center Grove Newsletters under the umbrella of the TownePost network. As we grow, we want to dedicate more ink and time to our local communities. To this end, we’ve enlisted the help of veteran news guy and friend Neal Moore. He and I have been talking for the past few years about the new age of hyper local news. Who better to tell you all about the future of our newsletters, websites, apps, and video than our newest TownePost team member, Neal Moore.
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I’m Neal Moore, the new Local Editorial Manager for the TownePost network of community magazines and websites. I’ve spent 40 years in communications including TV news anchoring and reporting, public relations, video production, and in recent years, writing many stories for atGeist.com and atFishers.com. I’m very pleased to join Tom Britt in this new role. I’m going to ask for your involvement with TownePost as we develop new ways and opportunities to tell your stories. But first, here are some reflections on how we got to where we are today.
I was born in 1953, and grew up in the era of three channels on the TV dial (four, if you could watch Popeye and Janie on fuzzy Channel 4), and a handful of newspapers and radio stations providing local news and information. These media platforms enjoyed remarkable popularity and profits using a “one-to-many” business model. It was content of their making; offered on schedules of their choice; delivered on static, non-interactive devices. Such was the mid-century media landscape.
Ironically, during the same years that I delivered newspapers and dreamt of being a radio disk jockey, the U.S. government and academic researchers were noodling with the first iteration of what would become today’s Internet. You might have noticed that the Internet (and the World Wide Web that it spawned) turned the media business on its collective head. Amidst the fallout were the evolution of citizen journalism and the ability to deliver hyper-local content. Such is the media landscape today.
That’s what makes TownePost tick – news, information, storytelling – all of it laser-focused on the communities, neighborhoods, even streets where we live, and much of it generated by local residents. As publisher Tom Britt puts it, “There’s no news that’s too small”, and I agree. We want to know what’s happening in your world, and to understand what your interests are. We encourage you to share your stories, photos, videos, news tips, ideas and suggestions so that we, in turn, can share them with the thousands of readers, web surfers and advertisers in Geist and Fishers.
Finally, I’m looking for skilled writers to join the TownePost team. If you’re interested in researching and writing local stories, and have a flair for great storytelling, contact me by email, neal@atGeist.com. All writing styles and experience levels are welcome. Together, let’s continue sharing stories about Geist and Fishers that reflect just how terrific our communities are, and what great places they are to live.
