Sometimes
the best way to get things done is to announce that you are going to do it. It
raises the expectations of those around you, amps up the pressure, and forces
you to take a stand.
For some
time, in our grand scheme of things, we have planned on building a semi-eponymous
web site — TheRealDealPress.com — and rolling it out with great fanfare and a
full bore marketing effort, guerilla and otherwise.
For a
host of reasons, including a near lifelong tendency to want to bite off more
than we can chew, and a reluctance to ask for help, this hasn’t happened yet.
Over the
years, I have tried to make a virtue of such shortfalls — I like to call it
flexibility — so I have come to appreciate that there is more than one way to
skin a cat.
All of
which is perhaps unnecessary prelude to some significant news about our website
and this blog, which I am sharing initially to our most faithful readers: those
of you who have signed up as followers of this earnest efforts to inform and
occasionally entertain. First, our website will launch before my next birthday,
which is less than a fortnight away. It will be a fierce effort to become a
broader, deeper and more consistent representation of the state of the black
community in Greater Cleveland than has perhaps ever been done before. This has
actually been a desire of mine for a few decades. I think the need has been
there for far longer.
Since no
one person can do this alone, we have begun to assemble a team of people to
help with a variety of tasks — reporting, designing, content management,
marketing, writing, etc. An important few have also stepped forward as
financial investors.
Over the
next few weeks, as we prepare to launch TheRealDealPress.com,
new posts will appear here on at least a daily basis. Sometimes there will be
multiple posts. And, as you will soon note, they will come from a variety of
contributors.
You can
help us in several ways. First, you can become more avid readers and commentators.
Don’t just send us an email; post a comment for the world to see. We are open
to op-eds. Stop back often, to build your Real Deal Press habit with us and to
increase our page views, which in turn will help us gain the advertisers who in
turn will help to fortify and sustain our efforts.
Also, if
you are or know of talented individuals who might be candidates to join our
team, get in touch with us here. We especially seek reporters and ad sales
executives, part or full time.
Additionally,
if you know of events or news that you believe would be of interest to our
readers, send it to us here. We haven’t fully worked out our ideas about
crowd-sourced news yet, but we are open to the idea.
Finally,
we usually send emails announcing our posts to anywhere from a few hundred to a
few thousand people. That stops today. When the site is up, we will be using
Constant Contact to handle that chore. Meanwhile, you can invite your friends
to check us out here.
When we
launch, we will make sure you and the world know.
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Our
intent is to be your most dependable source of news, information, and events going
on in the ever-evolving definition of community. Thanks for sticking with us
thus far and let us here from you as we blaze a new path.
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