Photo for Headline Surfer® / Daytona Beach News-Journal Editor Pat Rice is shown in this promotional shot from 2012 at the private Tiger Bay Club of which he's an officer with then-State Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, who wound up defeating term-limited Volusia County Council Chair Frank Bruno for the dis. 8 State Senate seat. Rice leads by example for the newspaper's new breed of gladhander staffers by being seen with politicians.DAYTONA BEACH -- How many Waverly Media stories are we going to be bombarded with in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, the tool for privileged politicians and overpaid government managers?
By the way, how long do you think News-Journal Editor Pat Rice will continue pumping folksy drivel when he has to start defending the newspaper's (and parent company Halifax Media's) insider connections with government revenues?
As an aside, it should be noted that when searching for "News-Journal Editor Pat Rice" in Google and clicking images, the first main grouping of photos for him are under the domain for Headline Surfer®.
We will enter the Waverly investigation coverage in the next 48 hours and go toe-to-toe with the News-Journal, including trial coverage in U.S. District Court n Orlando where I last covered the beginning stages of Cox vs. the News-Journal Corporation over the naming rights fiasco for the $27 million albatross initially called the Lively Arts Center, the pre-cursor to the "News-Journal Center."
You can compare the coverage between what we report and what the News-Journal will provide. Oh, and by the way, you'll see fully-dressed coverage, including quotes and perspective from the Waverly principals themselves, Jim Sotolongo and Ramara Garrett, who are accused of real estate-related fraud charges.
Waverly political bench advertising is being investigated by the State Attorney's Office and the results of that probe have been of minimal significance for the countless headlines pumped out by the News-Journal. In fact, overshadowed by Rice's obsession with the county probe and Jon Kaney.
Even high-profile attorney Kaney, for whom we have a great deal of professional and personal respect, even though he knows we're tough in the reporting department, has been quiet since we pointed out his bravado in the News-Journal a couple weeks back.
We reported the quote attributed to him after the County Council gave him subpoena powers as its investigator where he told the News-Journal, "I don't have to ask quite so nicely now."
County PR flak Dave Byron denied the News-Journal had an inside track with Kaney, former general counsel to the Daytona newspaper, under the previous owners led by Davidson family patriarch Tippen Davidson, with Kaney's wife, Georgia M. Kaney, a first-class businesswoman, who was publisher.
Already, we can point out errors in what's published in today's News-Journal Waverly offerings from sneak peak rehash Monday night.
Headline Surfer® photo by Henry Frederick / The Daytona Beach News-Journal went after Headline Surfer® back in August with 14 stories attacking this small business owner's integrity with lines like "one dollar less" than the minimum to avoid board approval weeks after we successfully inked a lawful $10,000 marketing and advertising contract with the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority's interim director, Renee Tellevast, who also is the director of the West Volusia ad authority in DeLand.
The third, of course, is the Halifax Area Advertising Authority in Daytona Beach headed by Director Jeffrey Hentz, who announced last month he was resigning in February.
In through compliance with the contract, we dedicated three prime spots on our home page, where we agreed to provide a weekly write-up on the inaugural Fall Beach Weeks campaign, along with a sidebar story or info graphic and a calendar listing.
The key in getting the contract was our ability to showcase past tourism events we had covered through an awesome array of videos produced by Serafina as the multimedia editor, dating back to our internet newspaper launch in April 2008, initially as NSBNews.net and then the added VolusiaNews.net before bringing those two domains under the umbrella registered trademark HeadlineSurfer.com in 2012.
The emphasis behind the name change was to promote the county's beaches as a destination, especially for surfer enthusiasts along with the double meaning of surfing the web for news headlines. We were able to secure the trademark with the paid legal services of Heather Vargas of Cobb Cole who is among the few Florida attorneys who specializes in internet and intellectual property rights.
Our contract offered the SVAA unfettered access to our video catalogue -- with 2,500 published videos as well as another 1,500 raw videos -- and more than 100,000 still photos.
This was all original content in the heart of the Southeast Volusia community, including New Smyrna Beach community, as well as Edgewater, Oak Hill, Port Orange and Daytona, the latter being the big tourism events like the Daytona 500 and Bike Week.
My wife, Serafina, and I made a decision, at great personal sacrifice, to cover these events during the five years in order to build community goodwill as opposed to selective reporting to generate revenue. Events such as
Headline Surfer® videos produced by Mulrtimedia Editor Serafina Frederick / Coverage of New Smyrna Beach High School sports and academics has been given top priority by the internet newspaper for five-plus years.
street parties like the New Smyrna Beach Shrimp and Seafood Festival on Flagler Avenue, the Canal Street Children's Halloween Parade, the Edgewater Fourth of July Fireworks Shows, New Smyrna Beach High School Cudas home football games, including game highlights, halftime marching band performances, cheerleaders and the Homecoming pageantry selection of the King and Queen.
We shot videos showcasing academic programs, honors awards, foreign language festivals and New Smyrna Beach High School seniors awards night and graduation coverage, the latter with as many as 12 to 15 videos accessed by extended family throughout the U.S. and even abroad.
We also covered beach events from surfing contests to issues like beach driving and safety and the goings on of municipal governments community groups and even church events like feeding programs for the homeless.
Our video coverage of racing at Daytona International Speedway was extensive -- from the Rolex 24 spots cars to Speed Weeks and the Daytona 500, including the infield, pits and traffic.
Headline Surfer® videos produced by Multimedia Editor Serafina Frederick / The 24/7 internet newspaper had an exclusive on-stage video shoot of classic rock band Blue Oyster Cult in concert during Biketoberfest 2011 at Bruce Rossmyer's Destination Daytona, including a post-concert interview with guitarist Eric Bloom.
Our coverage of Bike Week events has consistently been unparalleled in Florida, with several hundred raw videos (many X-rated that would require significant blurring for posting) in the campgrounds, coleslaw wrestling at the Cabbage Patch in Samsula and classic rock bands performing. During Biketobrfest 2011, Headline Surfer® was granted an exclusive on-stage video shoot of Blue Oyster Cult in concert in front of 5,000 screaming fans at Destination Daytona in Ormond Beach, of the band's signature hits, "Don't Fear the Reaper," "Burnin' for You" and "Godzilla."
We have videos of dramatic criminal court cases, sentencing hearings and tragic community events from homicides to fatal wrecks and weather emergencies.
Given all that, ironically, it was the News-Journal that attacked our advertising contract with New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer given carte blanche to attack us under the guise of destroying New Smyrna Beach when it was he and the city manager, Pam Brangaccio, under investigation by the Florida Commission on Ethics. More on that shortly.
In fact, after all the hue and cry in the first two stories in the News-Journal -- not a single person from the public complained at the Aug. 8 ad authority meeting where it was briefly discussed other than Guy Mariande, husband of City Commissioner Judy Reiker, who like Barringer has supported insider friends and failed to note at that meeting his relationship to Commissioner Reiker, who would later go on to attack the County Council for reinstating Palmer Wilson to the SVAA the first time around.
Not a single video or photo had been requested of us. The contract ended Jan. 7, with the contract ending on Jan. 7. doing business with the city under questNot one video or photo has been used to date by the SVAA with the contract officially set to expire Feb. 7. The SVAA going back to mid-October didn't contact us or request any particulars on scope of coverage.
And our marketing has never been questioned or commented on by the SVAA executive director or his board. Contrast that with County Council member Joshua Wagner's comments from the dais when Wilson testified after his initial removal, about how valuable the contract was, given access to our audio-visual library.
After the 4th or 5th News-Journal story about our contract with the SVAA, I was in tears in front of the dais in the Frank T. Bruno County Council Chambers in DeLand (I would never disgrace my standing as a business owner, journalist, father or husband). I've never been arrested. I've never been sued. My wife and I are college educated and I raised my son, Henry IV, now 20, in Volusia County, since moving here in July 1996, to report for work at the News-Journal.
I was by far the the top award-winning reporter at the News-Journal for nearly a decade (from among scores of reporters) and to this day have amassed more awards than what is left there, including the new breed of press release re-writers.
Now it's the News-Journal's turn to feel the heat (shout bias! I'll throw my 65 award-winning stories in your face). After legitimate public information requests going back to last August, I finally got ad revenue totals the News-Journal and found out they had been getting from our county government -- close to $700,000 the last three years alone while Headline Surfer® has gotten nothing. Making matters worse, it appears that none of this funding has been approved or awarded.
We will continue chipping away at the public record to get a complete picture and then put the onus on the county for inclusion or showdown over continued exclusion. We feel the public support for transparency and who can best serve the taxpayers without compromising news integrity will prove to be the litmus test. If diplomacy and transparency fail, then we'll return to the courts.
As another example of the SVAA's failure to leverage their contract with Headline Surfer®, back in October, Carl Watson told me last our focus on what is right, I wasn't kidding when I filed a complaint affidavit with the State Attorney last week seeking misdemeanor charges against te three rogue members on the SVAA board, alleging they broke Sunshine Law in string of emails that included "Who's the Rat?"
It was Watson who took over for the multi-talented Tim Hamby, the architect of the Spring Beach Weeks that led to record overnight stays, who, here for no more than a year, left, fed up with the micro-managing of Deb Denys.
The SVAA contract with us turned out to be a farce.
When the push to derail the contract failed in August and early September, despite the shameless fueled News-Journal stories written by PR specialists like Jeffrey Cassady, new $70,000 executive Carl Watson's appeared more interested in charging meals to the taxpayer funded SVAA credit card until he got caught (with yours truly reporting it), which led to the alleged government in shadows violations by three SVAA board members -- with Watson being listed as being complicit in my sworn affidavit last week against them with the State Attorney's Office.
This all was the result of the actions of a first-term county council member in Deb Denys, who was not returned for a second term to the school board a decade ago in a book-burning episode who forced out Palmer Wilson, the SVAA chair, who was cleaning up the mess.
Republicans Denys and Pat Patterson, along with Democrats Pat Northey and Doug Daniels, all with significant re-election campaign funding from Republican booster and millionaire luxury home builder Mori Hosseini (who desperately wants a huge I-95 Pioneer Trail interchange connector paid for by taxpayers) has bankrolled any combination of the four in 2012 elections and again this year.
I recognize my planned "Open Letter" to Gov. Scott as promised to the public on county and municipal government corruption and a demand for assignment of a prosecutor from the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor, where I will allege felony criminal charges against Denys, will probably be scoffed at since Hosseini and Scott are friends.
But Headline Surfer® is focused on its public advocacy responsibilities and it's coming and real soon. Denys has been given a heads up and numerous opportunities to respond and tell her side of the story, but continues to dodge transparency.
As in the case of my complaint against the three ad authority where I have stated I will withdraw it if they resign, the same holds true for Ms. Denys where I have offered to rescind, if, and only if, she apologizes to Wilson and resigns. Otherwise, as an advocate for the public, I have my obligations to fulfill.
As a result of slick politicians like Barringer in the last year that we held accountable to the public (nine stories for which yours truly was the top awarded reporter in Central Florida for second consecutive year, Florida Press Club), we lost 90 percent of our ad revenue in New Smyrna Beach that we had in place for five full years. In many cases as they left us, they admitted to pressure from the likes of Barringer and company.
While as a result of these actions against us, we had to leave our rental home of nearly four years and move to far less comfortable living arrangements, it was in a way an opportunity for reflection and regrouping of our corporate direction and synergy. As a result, Headline Surfer® will be embarking on a new ad campaign, with a refocus back on Daytona Beach and setting up shop (while looking for a new place to live in our adopted tranquil Lake Mary).
We'll continue building on our mushrooming visitors and social media contacts as demonstrated in the search engines and news directories, while redoubling our efforts to supplement our revenues by hitting the Orlando market as well with a new and polished advertising package and support for our clients.
As part of our new look and associated with our new revenue streams, we will launch the next generation of Headline Surfer®, far superior to what we've built to this point.
Michael Redding and Halifax Media (with less than half the original 800 employees left) don't have a monopoly on Daytona Beach. We'll continue our multi-media platform in covering the upcoming Rolex 24 and February's SpeedWeeks/Daytona 500 races.
Over the last three years, we've been denied a garage pass to get access to the drivers and race teams and as a result we've used cinder blocks in the infield to place the MacBook Pro on with no place to work, but we still got the breaking news out about the tire flying into the grandstands in the Nationwide Race and the excitement of the Daytona 500 with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fighting for the checkered flag and settling for second two years in a row.
Despite all the business and personal trial of last year, my wife and I remain strong and yet sensitive to others around us. In that vein, despite our limited financial resources, this Christmas, Serafina, and I, were lucky to have enough to pay essential bills, while, in the spirit of the season, still making sure a pre-school Daytona Beach boy, raised by struggling grandparents, had a Christmas with real toys.
In contrast, our stories today on MLK will show how shamefully Mayor Barringer stayed out of the media spotlight during the Ku Klux Klan flyer drop in the black Westside community, but used his mail-order Phd charm on stage Monday, even inviting his elected commissioner colleagues, who were equally guilty in hiding out when they could have stood tall, to join him on stage.
Our stories will pay tribute to the MLK ceremony for kids, pastors and attendees. But we'll also show you intense video interviews from residents as to why Barringer is such a deep-seeded hypocrite for throwing in his 2 cents on what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. meant for seeking equality for all races.
What Barringer didn't offer is that he is a member of the "all-white-all male" Anglers Club with that club paying a paltry $25 annually for exclusive rights to 2.5 acres of multi-million dollar prime waterfront. The amentities there include a two-story clubhouse and 43 large boat slips for another half century at $25.00 a year, in a deal set up during the height of Jim Crow when the KKK was in its heyday locally.
And as for state ethics charges being dismissed against Barringer and City Manager Pam Brangaccio for the private retirement party for longtime Commissioner Jim Hathaway who gave up his municipal seat in his failed campaign against Denys in 2012, there are some seriously inaccurate claims made by the two through their Tallahassee attorney, Mark Herron, a former Ethics Commission principal.
The nearly year-long investigation and proceedings as well as final determinations were made in secrecy. Only after a ruling has been made, is information public. In our opinion, a gross disservice to the public.
But it is this very information that Headline Surfer® has in its possession, which calls into question the very veracity of the documents and explanations afforded the Mayor and City Manager, while it becomes rather apparent the complainant, citizen watchdog Bob Tolley was denied true due process.
Here again, Headline Surfer® will exhaust every available option, including the lobbying of Governor Scott, the Florida legislators and assistance from government watch groups and national media to shine the spotlight on corruption that has become more and more accepted by those we entrust with enforcing the law.
That story comes in next few days. The News-Journal, which ran with the city's press release, won't touch this. After all, it's now Waverly Media -- day and night. Oh, and we were right on the money about News-Journal getting close to $700,000 in "unexplained and undefined" advertising revenue from county government in the past three years.getting even basic figures.
By the way, Headline Surfer®, which has run more county government-produced press releases than all media outlets combined in the past five-plus years, hasn't received a penny.
And while Headline Surfer® has received numerous journalism accolades in the past three years alone and during the 2012 election season hosted and sponsored 15 public candidate debates at its own expense, the News-Journal has used its marketing partnerships with Daytona State College, Daytona International Speedway and other such venues at either token or no costs while the internet newspaper was denied access to such facilities.
Then there is the wholesale ignoring or glossing over of reasons why Daytona's national standing is losing its appeal to tourists, especially those described as affluent.
Yes, Daytona only had five of 22 or so homicides countywide. Sure, the murdered Deltona mom and her missing children, presumed killed as well even though their tiny bodies have yet been recovered and her estranged husband now charged with all three murders has attracted attention.
But when one takes a closer look those five murders in Daytona, everyone of them particularly gruesome, you begin to understand why tourists are going elsewhere. The killings are senseless and downright bone-chilling, even to this writer who covered cops and courts for the News-Journal for the better part of a decade, dating back to mid-1996.
We'll continue building on our mushrooming visitors and social media contacts as demonstrated in the search engines and news directories, while redoubling our efforts to supplement our revenues by hitting the Orlando market as well with a new and polished advertising package and support for our clients.
Funny thing about the News-Journal brain trusts like Pat Rice is they continue pushing their new breed of glad-handing business writers rehashing the same few projects in long narratives every five to seven days, obviously fueled by advertising, yet they fill up the paper with press release crime reports and moronic ad authority monthly figures on hotel stays like it really matters when one sees the reality of Daytona losing its grip even on the once-guaranteed staple biker rallies, the 10-day Bike Week in early Spring and October's regional 3-4-day weekend Biketoberfest.
What is promising is Daytona International Speedway continuing to push the envelope on its national and even global appeal with the Daytona 500 and the stronger marketing of the Rolex 24 sports car endurance racing programs. Plus with the ongoing $400 million Daytona Rising, which Headline Surfer® strongly supports,
Imagine the excitement at the world center of racing should Dale Earnhardt, Jr. take the checkered flag in the Feb. 23 Daytona 500 after two consecutive second place finishes. Or maybe Danica Patrick winning the 500 with her impressive top 10 finish last year after taking the pole.
The only way to restore Daytona Beach to its former glory (-- and it's always been a blue-collar party town -- close to home for two executed serial killers -- Gerald Stano, who once worked in the News-Journal mailroom, and Aileen Wuornos,) (yes, yours truly witnessed her execution in 1992) is to continue holding politicians and government accountable.
All we can do is to continue reporting the news as objectively as possible and providing the in-depth coverage and continued community service that has demonstrated why our coverage is vital to the public. We'll work as diligently as we move forward with our life's work and love for this community.
Perhaps when the power brokers realize excluding us from opportunities to compete for advertising and marketing, is not in the public interest, they'll start supporting us, too. Why? Because we are a viable medium that has public engagement and debate.
So long as we have our "Working Press" credentials, basic tools like MacBooks, video camera and continued focus on news that really matters, along with a renewed focus on developing advertising and revenue streams, our brand of award-winning breaking news and investigative reporting will continue resonating with the public and advertisers.
After all, we have a powerful, custom-built $300,000 internet newspaper that is accessed around the clock by visitors throughout greater Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Port Orange, Deltona, Sanford, Orlando, Palm Coast, Titusville, Kissimmee, DeLand, Lake Mary, Longwood and throughout the Sunshine State, the U.S. and around the globe, we'll continue doing what we love: Reporting the news, good, bad or indifferent.