NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- We have a new umbrella trademarked name in Headline Surfer, but make no mistake about it: We are still NSBNews.net and greater New Smyrna Beach is our turf. When we launched Florida's first 24/7 Internet newspaper on April 7, 2008, the print media was in trouble.
It's no different now.
Print media remains, primarily Daytona's daily newspaper, remains relevant because of its political, marketing and advertising connections. Translated? Strong revenue from Halifax Health and Bert Fish hospitals that receive tax-payer funding for indigent care, so-called "partnership" with Daytona State College, indirect bed-tax funding through local merchants through the advertising authorities/CVBs, Volusia County government and of course, municipal governments through "legal advertising" and the CRAs.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal closed its longstanding Canal Street bureau in June 2008, two months after our launch. The bureaus in DeLand, Orange City, Bunnell and Tallahassee were shut down as well and over several years' time, cut 400 jobs.
The Observer converted from a daily to a weekly and closed in mid-2008, too, only to re-open under new ownership and with large taxpayer-supported monies. It was relocated from U.S. 1 to Canal Street, then Flagler Avenue before being moved yet again to the then-Edgewater home of owner-publisher Michele and her financial consultant-services husband, Robert Lott, who got two widows, an 82-year-old and a 62-year-old, to give his wife's Observer $60,000 and $50,000, collectively.
The Observer's Lott ownership had a massive trail of debt -- including $46,000 to the owners of the Hampton Inn nearing completion on Flagler. The Lotts sought and received a wiping away of those debts through bankruptcy court earlier this year. The Observer is set to open yet again in a matter of days under new ownership, this time as a web-based "good news" operation under Realtor Tom Alcorn.
Hometown News, a weekly freebie out of Fort Pierce with a bureau in South Daytona -- like the Observer -- writes positive news, meaning nothing adversarial to government.
We've taken our lumps, especially from Robert Lott's chamber of commerce executive board friends, but we've persevered. We joined the Daytona Area Chamber of Commerce and we're better off for it.
We are continuing to see tremendous readership growth and our advertising is starting to take hold, all through the private marketplace: No CRAs, no advertising authorities, no hospitals and no colleges. It's not for lack of trying, though. And we'll continue pressing for inclusion.
The politicians -- office holders and those seeking re-election -- have flocked to us. They're not stupid: They see their names in the Google search engines and see their names in stories generated by "Headline Surfer" through HeadlineSurfer.com, NSBNews.net and VolusiaNews.net.
Despite the lack of connections with the colleges, we held the very first series of candidate debates in a day-long marathon session for eight races; more than the daily print paper had with three forums: Three days after us at the Brannon Center and then Daytona State College-owned News-Journal Center and Stetson University.
It's kind of ironic that since the News-Journal was promoting DSC that the Brannon Center was chosen over DSC's New Smyrna Beach branch campus. And yes, we'll strike first with a series of candidate debates after the Aug. 14 primary.
There is one major issue print media as well as the candidates hoping to win in November and that is answering our questions about the American Music Festival fiasco.
We have things to improve on: One experienced journalist cannot possibly cover everything while generating and building advertising as well as marketing. We need to develop more anchor advertisers countywide like we have here in New Smyrna Beach with Ocean Properties, Clancy's Cantina, Norwoods Restaurant and JJ Finns. But we have major strengths: We have no debts. We have extensive community, political and legal contacts; 16 years of reporting the news throughout Volusia County; and the ability to provide intense news coverage when needed.
Here are our other strengths: It takes scores of reporters and editors at the print daily to do what our Internet newspaper can do with one award-winning reporter. Our two strengths are breaking news and investigative reporting. Examples of our investigative reporting include our ongoing "Show Me the Money: New Smyrna Beach" looking at the Southeast Volusia ad authority and CRA scandals, and "Daytona PD's Internal Affairs," chronicling management abuses and the impact on the rank and file.
We have several more in the works: The one-year anniversary of our coverage of Oak Hill PD's disbandment with a recap mini-series called "Oak Hill Cops: Cocaine, Corruption and Chaos." That series starts tonight.
Before Oak Hill, we tackled New Smyrna Beach's planning fiasco. We'll also begin shortly our new major investigative project: "World's Most Famous Beach," looking at the real story behind two toddler fatalities with beach driving, issues with the Beach Patrol, shark bites, drownings, environmental regulations and tourism."
This series will begin in a week or so, depending on breaking news. Our intense greater New Smyrna Beach coverage is second to none. We're not about sitting through a three-hour commission meeting and regurgitating agenda items.
We have given more coverage to New Smyrna Beach's street festivals than all other media outlets combined. The 1,200 local videos in our catalogue is a testament to that.
We've covered New Smyrna Beach High School's homecoming and home football games all four years, including post-game interviews with the coach. For the second year in a row, we provided digital coverage of the NSBHS graduation from the Ocean Center as well as the honors recognition programs, all on video.
For a fifth consecutive year, we covered the Edgewater Fourth of July fireworks with stories, photos and videos. We've covered three annual NSB Balloonfests, even shooting videos from a plane.
Yes, our coverage is countywide and beyond, if necessary, like the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case, which we will continue to cover from inside the courtroom. And we'll continue our breaking news and investigative reports throughout Volusia County.
The Daytona 500, Coke Zero 400, Rolex 24, Bike Week and Biketoberfest will continue to be part of our primary coverage as witnessed by our videos of last fall's Blue Oyster Cult Cult concert. We'll also continue covering the County Chair's annual address and County Council issues.
If you have any doubts about who is covering the news in greater New Smyrna Beach, then go to the Google search engines and type in the names of public figures, institutions and issues. More often than not, you'll see the dominant media coverage coming from New Smyrna Beach's 24/7 Internet newspaper through NSBNews.net and HeadlineSurfer.com.
We're very excited to bring the news to you day and night through your smart phone, iPad or other tablet, laptop or home computer as we gear up for our fifth anniversary on April 7, 2013. The best thing is it's 100 percent free.
We live and work right here in New Smyrna Beach and we take great pride in bringing you the real news: Good, bad and otherwise.
God bless...
Headline Surfer is the umbrella trade-marked name for the New Smyrna Beach-based 24/7 Internet newspaper with emphasis on breaking news and investigative reporting in the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne metro region via HeadlineSurfer.com, NSBNews.net and VolusiaNews.net.