One morning in late July 2007, I was sitting on my back porch with dog, my coffee and my morning newspaper when the telephone rang.
It was an advertising manager in The Virginian-Pilot’s office in Norfolk calling basically to tell me I was fired from my job of 16 years as editor of The Island Breeze, a free monthly newspaper serving Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.
Let me digress to share some of the back story here.
I went to work for Tony McGowan as editor of his fledgling newspaper, The Island Breeze, in 1992 — a year after having moved here after a career in journalism at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky.
The Breeze was aimed at visitors to Hatteras Island and the advertisers who wanted to reach them. And together Tony and I built it into a terrific little local newspaper, read by locals and visitors, and filled with interesting stories and analysis of issues.
The Island Breeze grew from a skinny little paper that published only in the tourist season to a year-round newspaper that published all year and grew to 84 or 88 pages in the summer months.
It was very successful financially and popular with readers, and Tony sold it to The Virginian-Pilot, a Norfolk-based newspaper looking to expand its North Carolina presence, in 2000.
I continued as editor, but reported to the advertising division, not the news division, since the Pilot apparently considered the monthly shopper/newspaper a money-making endeavor only.
But that was okay at first. The advertising bosses in Norfolk and the Nags Head office barely knew where Hatteras was and, for the most part, didn’t bother us down here as long as we continued to do our jobs and make them money.
Then came two very ambitious, thirty-something ad managers who apparently didn’t like that after my 40 or so years in the business, I knew more than they did about some things like press layout or color page placement — and the Hatteras market.
They didn’t leave us alone down here, and although I mostly tried to mind my own business, I guess they didn’t like the way I was editing a very successful product. And that’s their right.
I was an independent contractor, not an employee, and that was the way I liked it.
Anyway, that July morning, one of the ad bosses called me to announce that the Pilot “was making a change in vendor services” and that my services as editor would no longer be needed.
I sure wasn’t devastated by the news at this point, and I certainly did not live on the rather small payments I received each month to put out the Breeze.
But I love journalism and I love the islands and I wasn’t ready to just quit.
A friend of mine suggested that I write a blog. I called another friend of mine, Buddy Swain, who co-owns Hatteras Designs, a website design company, with Jim Boyd. I called to ask what a blog was and if he could help me start an online blog about Hatteras and Ocracoke issues.
Buddy told me I didn’t need to start a blog. He said I needed to start an online newspaper and that he and Jim were ready to help.
I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into, but I agreed. Two of the three Pilot employees at the Breeze quit to join me in starting up The Island Free Press. Donna Barnett is now co-owner, designer, and webmaster of the newspaper. Pam Stoffel was our great first ad manager, and she now runs her own property management company, Shore Details.
About the second week in August, we met in my kitchen and started planning. About three weeks later, on Sept. 5, 2007, The Island Free Press was first published online.
Things haven’t worked out too well for the ad managers or the Breeze since then.
The Island Breeze still publishes, but not every month. It is a mere shadow of its former self — down to 28 or 32 pages of real estate ads, listings, old news stories republished from the Pilot, and a few features here and there. The office in Hatteras village was closed and sold some years ago.
North Carolina apparently hasn’t worked out so well for The Virginian-Pilot. The daily newspaper no longer has home delivery in North Carolina and no longer has a writer in Nags Head. The one North Carolina reporter tries hard, but mostly writes 12-inch stories about complicated barrier island issues.
However, I am happy to report that things have worked out quite well for The Island Free Press.
A lesson for me here is that local ownership is preferable to absentee owners who don’t get it.
We have a large and loyal readership of locals, off-island property owners, and regular and first-time visitors to the islands.
Readership in July surpassed our previous record. During the month we had 145,545 visits from 51,281 unique computers and 1.3 million page views. Those statistics were obviously helped by the arrival of Hurricane Arthur on July 4. But that just goes to show that when important news happens on Hatteras and Ocracoke, folks turn to their community newspaper for up-to-date, vital, and correct information.
We also have many loyal advertisers who support our work.
On this, our seventh anniversary, I’d like to share the names of the 20 folks who stepped up to the plate back in August of 2007 and made it possible for the start-up of The Island Free Press.
Most of them are business owners on the island whom I know personally. A few others are supporters who don’t live here.
I called them when we were planning the newspaper and asked each to pledge $300 for an advertisement in The Island Free Press from September through December. I described what I had in mind, and sight unseen, they agree to help bankroll our initial costs for such things as equipment and web design.
Those 20 backers were:
- Midgett Realty, which pledged $500 for the Front Page banner ad.
- Surf or Sound Realty.
- Outer Beaches Realty.
- Hatteras Realty.
- Buxton Village Books.
- Browning Artworks, which at that time had a gallery in Frisco.
- Albatross Fleet.
- Indian Town Gallery.
- Down Creek Gallery on Ocracoke.
- Buoy’s restaurant in Buxton, which is no longer in business.
- Spa Koru.
- Sandbar and Grill.
- Hatteras Tours.
- Scott Geib Photography.
- Risky Business Seafood.
- Looking Glass Productions, a Raleigh-based enterprise owned by my friend, Kevin Duffus, a historian and author.
- Shore Details.
- Charlie Barnett Construction.
- Locomotion, which was then a thrift shop owned by the Hatteras Island teen organization. I bought the ad and donated it to the non-profit group.
- Michael Gartner, a friend, former colleague, and mentor of mine.
A few of our initial supporters are no longer in business. A few were friends who gave start-up money to support my undertaking. A few decided that it did not benefit them to continue advertising.
Eight of those businesses have remained loyal supporters. They are Midgett Realty, Surf or Sound Realty, Outer Beaches Realty, Hatteras Realty, Buxton Village Books, the Albatross Fleet, Charlie Barnett Construction, and Shore Details.
They have been joined by other advertisers over the years, and we love all of them for their support.
Our only wish at this point is that we had the support of more of the businesses in our community — and that those businesses who have decided not to renew ads with us would reconsider their decisions.
We understand that businesses must make business decisions and must feel that they are being helped by the advertising dollars they spend.
We believe that those dollars are being well spent in The Island Free Press and that the ads are bringing in new or more business. We know that our statistics support that belief.
However, return on investment of ad dollars in the IFP doesn’t come only in the form of new or more customers.
Local businesses that support the local newspaper are also making an investment in the community — and, more specifically, community journalism.
Quality community journalism is something our community desperately needs.
The big newspapers and television stations show up only for hurricanes or murders or drownings. We are here all the time, providing our readers with information they really need to have to live here and visit here.
And few communities as small as ours are faced with really big issues day after day and year after year — issues such us replacing our decrepit bridge, maintaining a safe and vital highway, having reasonable access to our lovely beaches, fighting lawmakers who would toll our free ferries, keeping our ever-shoaling boat channels open.
Our mission statement says, “Your Island Free Press will cover and post the news as it happens, and its writers will explain the past, examine the present, and explore the future for residents and visitors alike. Writers familiar to island readers will cover everything from recreation to education, from policies to politics, and the Editor?s Column will try to put all this in perspective.”
We want to keep on doing the solid community journalism that you have seen in the past seven years.
However, to do that we must have the support of not only our readers, but also our business owners. And our business owners must have the support of our readers.
Thank you again to the businesses that helped us get started and those that still do support us.
And, most of all, thanks to you, our readers. You are the reason we are here today.
NEW RADIO INTERVIEW SHOW IS ‘TO THE POINT’
Today, I am also happy to share some news with our readers.
Beginning on Sunday, Sept. 7, you can listen to your community newspaper editor interview the community’s newsmakers and decision-makers on our community radio station.
Radio Hatteras — FM 101.5 AND FM 99.9 — will broadcast my new radio interview show, “To the Point,” at 5 p.m. on the first and third Sunday of the month — at least for now. If all goes well, the show could go weekly next year.
It will also be re-broadcast on the second and fourth Sundays, also at 5 o’clock.
Here is the way I have described the show:
“Twice a month, beginning Sunday, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m., Island Free Press editor Irene Nolan will be interviewing newsmakers about the events and issues that affect all of us who live on Hatteras Island and those of us who love to visit here.
You can expect to hear from folks who are making the news, those who are decision-makers, and some who are just plain interesting to talk to about the island and its past, present, and future.”
A live interview show with readers calling in questions is beyond the scope of the station’s all-volunteer staff and budget right now.
The show will be pre-recorded, though I welcome your ideas for people who you think should be interviewed and suggestions for questions to ask them.
Right now, Radio Hatteras also doesn’t have the money to stream the station online, but audio of the interviews will be available through The Island Free Press early in the week after it is broadcast — so all of our readers who don’t live on Hatteras can listen.
My guest on the first edition of “To the Point” is Kym Hall, the new acting superintendent of the NPS Outer Banks Group.
Tune it to hear Hall answer questions on Buxton beach restoration, the controversy over the construction of the new Ramp 25, this season’s shorebird and sea turtle nesting, the future of the Frisco Pier, and more.
You can send your suggestions about the show to me by e-mail at editor@islandfreepress.org — or just post them at the end of this blog.
MORE ABOUT RADIO HATTERAS
Radio Hatteras is our community, non-profit radio station and depends on grants, memberships, and underwriting.
It broadcasts around the clock with news — including such things as surfing and fishing reports — community announcements, music, and special programs.
Our community radio station also needs your support, and you can give that by purchasing a membership or by underwriting the station if you are a business or another community non-profit.
Radio Hatteras memberships are $50 for a family, $25 for an individual and $10 for a student. Mail memberships and other contributions to Radio Hatteras, P.O. Box 339, Frisco, NC 27936.
E-mail info@radiohatteras.org or call (252) 995-6000 for information about underwriting opportunities.
You can read more about Radio Hatteras and its music and programs on its Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/radiohatteras.
The new Radio Hatteras website is http://www.radiohatteras.org. There?s information on memberships, underwriting, and programming, among other things.
Radio Hatteras wants to publicize community events. You can send them at least two weeks in advance to psa@radiohatteras.org.
If you have a special request for a song, you can e-mail it to studio@radiohatteras.org.
If you have news, you can send it to news@radiohatteras.org.
