'Tortious interference' by NSB gov't; piling on by News-Journal cripple finances
Headline Surfer has provided more than 2,500 videos and thousands of story postings of the events -- large and small -- that have helped shape the quality of life for locals and tourists alike in the past five yrars in greater Daytona Beach-New Smyrna Beach as shown by these select videos. While the 24/7 internet newspaper has produced award-winning multimedia coverage for a 21st-century digital world, political insiders and print media have not taken too kindly to the new media brand produced by the husband-wife team of Henry Frederick and Serafina Frederick.
DAYTONA BEACH -- With the growing popularity of Headline Surfer as a free digital source of online news accessed around the clock throughout Florida and globally for that matter, the 24/7 internet newspaper is going to slowly move away from hyper-local municipal government coverage focused on greater Daytona Beach Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach, in particular, to news of Central Florida.
Launched April 7, 2008 initially as NSBNews.net, Headline Surfer was the first true 24/7 internet newspaper in the Sunshine State and among the first in the nation. Since October of that year, it has been accessed by 1.62 million visitors (1.03 million unique visitors) with 2.87 million page views. In the last year alone ending June 30, it generated 506,789 visitors (371,095 unique) and 850,146 page views, with the online users from 9,250 cities in 178 countries.
Headline Surfer has traditionally provided news from the 16 Volusia County municipalities, but with the renewed focus, the internet newspaper will draw from news in 54 municipalities in the following counties: Osceola, Orange, Seminole, Brevard, Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns, Putnam, Marion and Lake.
In order to accomplish this monumental step and out of need to generate more advertising revenue, Headline Surfer is moving its home base from New Smyrna Beach to Lake Mary.
This will give the internet newspaper closer access to Orlando while still maintaining strong news coverage in greater Daytona-New Smyrna. But that's only partly the reason for the move.
Headline Surfer can no longer afford to stay in its established residence in Sugar Mill because of rapidly declining revenues caused by tortious interference on the part of a corrupt New Smyrna administration led by Mayor Adam Barringer and City Manager Pamela Brangaccio, both facing multiple state ethics charges.
Headline Surfer can no longer afford to stay in its established residence in Sugar Mill because of rapidly declining revenues caused by tortious interference on the part of a corrupt New Smyrna administration led by Mayor Adam Barringer and City Manager Pamela Brangaccio, both facing multiple state ethics charges.
One of the key reasons for the move is the need to generate advertising, which has not been as forthcoming as pledged, especially from Barringer, who not not only reneged on promised inclusion of Headline Surfer for advertising, but also worked directly and with political insiders to cut off advertising Headline Surfer had already generated.
The internet newspaper has learned that ethics charges are now also pending against City Attorney Frank Gummey as well as current City Commissioners Judy Reiker and Jack Grasty and former Commissioners Lynne Plaskett and Jim Hathaway
This tortious interference was further exacerbated by a half dozen stories prominently published in the Daytona Beach News-Journal in the last several weeks over Headline Surfer's lawful $10,000 advertising and marketing contract with the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority.
The News-Journal stories, which included one-sided defamatory statements by Barringer, were intended to paint Headline Surfer in a negative light.
These stories include gross errors the Daytona print newspaper has refused to correct. As a direct result of these defamatory stories, two other major contracts Headline Surfer had been counting on fell through as a direct result of the adverse coverage.
In the months ahead, Headline Surfer will place emphasis on Central Florida tourism news, including Disney and the attractions and coverage of the Orlando Magic.
However, breaking news from the Florida Highway Patrol and area cop shops including those in greater Daytona, will remain the first priority as well as the monitoring of news from US. District Court in Orlando and the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach.
The internet newspaper will continue its comprehensive coverage of the races at Daytona International Speedway, from the Rolex 24 to Speedweeks and the Daytona 500 to the July Coke Zero 400.
The motorcycle rallies -- Bike Week and Biketoberfest -- will continue to be staples of coverage as will news on the beaches in Daytona, New Smyrna and Ormond.
Headline Surfer will continue its multi-media coverage not only of breaking news, but also its investigative reporting under banners like "Show Me the Money."last year
Going beyond Volusia County is nothing new to Headline Surfer, which drove to Miami to get an interview with Trayvon Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin at a large rally just weeks after the teen was shot to death in Sanford.
Headline Surfer was the lone Volusia County-based media outlet to provide coverage of the trial of the accused killer, George Zimmerman, who was ultimately acquitted. Headline Surfer is writing a book on the trial, "Creepy Ass Cracker," which is targeted for publication between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Headline Surfer was one one of three media outlets to be recognized with a journalism industry award for the Trayvon Martin killing, along with the Orlando Sentinel and the Huffington Post. The story was among five stories, three blogs and the internet news site itself, recognized in four awards in the statewide 2012 Florida Press Club journalism contest.
In all, Headline Surfer has won five awards in the past two years and is under consideration for awards in 13 categories in the 2013 competition to be announced in October.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal has a stranglehold on taxpayer-supported advertising in Volusia County and the 16 municipalities, as well as Daytona State College and the publicly-subsidized indigent care hospitals including Halifax Health in Daytona, Bert Fish in New Smyrna and the hospitals in Orange City and DeLand.
All told, Headline Surfer believes the News-Journal receives upwards of $1 million annually in taxpayer-supported government advertising revenues in Volusia County.
And the former weekly Observer received more than $50,000 in a four-year period from New Smyrna Beach and Bert Fish until the paper folded in November 2011 under former owners Robert and Michele Lott, who sought and received bankruptcy protection from creditors owed more than half a million bucks.
By comparison, Headline Surfer received a paltry $680 from Bert Fish in 2011 and had to wait two years for the check to be processed. And though Headline Surfer has recycled more of Volusia County government's press releases into published stories than all other media outlets combined over the past five years, the internet newspaper with a defined readership has received no advertising opportunities.
Headline Surfer sponsored and moderated 15 public candidate debates in 2012 for local, county and state races in Volusia County leading up to the November elections.
And Headline Surfer was the lone media outlet denied a media sponsorship from the Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce, despite being a three-year paid member.
Headline Surfer left the New Smyrna Beach-based chamber after demanding and receiving a partial refund of its membership and subsequently joined the Daytona Regional Chamber last year, and had a media sponsorship. But the internet newspaper couldn't afford the $500 membership and was dropped last month.