Latest / Own More Doors / #26 Why Local Journalism Matters: Interview with CEO of the Long Beach Post (Melissa Evans)

Transcript

#26 Why Local Journalism Matters: Interview with CEO of the Long Beach Post (Melissa Evans) · Own More Doors

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: What's up everyone?
• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Juan Weezar here with the Own More Doors podcast.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: This specific episode was first shared on our YouTube channel, Sage Real Estate.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Check it out.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we're excited to bring it to you here.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoy the interview.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, Juan Wizard here with Sage Real Estate.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting down with uh Melissa Evans.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: She's the CEO of the Long Beach Post and the Long Beach Business Journal.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Melissa, thank you for being here today.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: So catch us up on what's going on with the Business Journal, with the Long Beach Post, the role that it plays in and the city that we love here in Long Beach.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us what's going on.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's been a very eventful year for us at the Post.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the Post has been around since 2007.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: The Business Journal has been around since 1987, was when the first publication came out.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it both both publications were owned privately for many years.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: But a year ago, our former owner and us worked together collaboratively to turn the Post and the Business Journal into a nonprofit, which is kind of a uh it's there's some new momentum for uh nonprofit news in the in the bigger media landscape.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I was very excited about this uh this move because what we do is really a public service.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: We keep people informed, we keep leaders accountable by providing um sort of a check on government through public, you know, public records requests and various reporting projects.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um we also do very light stuff, where to eat, you know, we feature chefs and the community at large, the culture here in Long Beach is so interesting.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, what we really do is very much in line with a nonprofit type model.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I did not know though, because my background is all in news.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I was a reporter and editor for many years.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: I did not know quite how much work it was gonna be, but it was I'm glad that I did it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh we we um got a board last uh a year ago uh in October 2023, and we've been we actually dissolved the former for-profit company and onboarded new employees to the nonprofit in December.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, and then you know, it's been there's been some very challenging times, but where we are right now, uh we're stable.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: We are in a good budgetary place.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we can talk more about this if you want, but it but you know, financing and and economics and journalism is a very uh hot topic right now, at least in our industry, um, that I I I think maybe you know some people don't know how hard it is to sustain a newsroom.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we are smaller, um, but we have a very good base of donors.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have a strong membership program, strong advertising department um program.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we are definitely poised for growth, I will say.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: We I I I enjoy reading the post.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love reading the business journal, and I love that it was coming out every other week.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I know that right now there's been a pause on that, and it's gonna be coming back soon.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: But people, the city of Long Beach, I I feel like uh without the post, not that many people are reading the press telegram.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I would choose I would choose the post and the business journal over any other publication that's out there.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I'm glad that you guys fought to find a way to keep keep both of these around because like you said, hey, it's it it is a public service.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, you know what?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: I I mean I've been in this business for 30 years, and and it's something that I personally feel very passionate about, about truth and the public's right to know.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: So transparency, providing equipping people with information, which is power, levels the playing field.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's there's a lot of talk about, you know, um, there's a lot of cynicism about government.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Some of it's warranted, but you know, about you know, we're we're a few days away from the election, you know, just who who controls the the levers of power, both locally and nationally, and and that's what we do is we we equip people with information so that they can be empowered to get involved and to vote, you know, vote with intelligence.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um but, you know, so I was the city editor at the Press Telegram for seven years before I came to the post in 2018.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um the Press Telegram is actually a really good example of what's happening in the industry.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was purchased by a hedge fund um around 2015, and it's just been gutted.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I love the people at the Press Telegram, by the way.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would have I would have stayed at that publication forever.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love the the PT, the people there.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they it it was just suffocating under, you know, this this this hedge fund ownership.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, what we were able to build at the post, and and we the company purchased the business journal in 2020, um, I'm really proud of.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And when it came time a year ago to figure out what to do, um, you know, we were we were facing being closed down, and I was not okay with that.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a group of people at the post that were not okay with that.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so because of, you know, what like where are people gonna get good information?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there already aren't enough journalists right, you know, doing this kind of work.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I myself and a few others decided we were gonna fight for it.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, let us know what you know, when you talk about the importance of journalism and investigative journalism, give us some examples of some of the stuff that you've covered in the city that have been noteworthy.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: My fame the the best it it's a heavy story, but the best example was, and I I talked about this recently, was there was a terrible crash five years ago on Halloween night.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was almost exactly five years ago.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a a young man who was 20 at the time was able to get a bottle of Jack Daniels from a liquor store, um, drove drunk through the Los Cerritos neighborhood and killed a family of three: a mother, father, and a young, adorable two-year-old boy named Omar.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the it was devastating.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: The community was um was horrified by this tragedy.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so we we covered the tragedy, but one of our reporters really stayed on this story for years.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And what he did, he investigated how this woman who ran this liquor store and had been disciplined multiple times by the state for selling to minors and other infractions, how she was able to keep her liquor license.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um the coverage was so powerful that the local city prosecutor here actually pushed for a change in state law to toughen penalties on liquor store owners who break the law and sell to underage uh individuals.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So Lena Gonzalez, our state senator, proposed the legislation.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: It got signed into law a year ago.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that's you know, and and I'll and I'll say that's rare.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, a lot of times we do this work and it's you don't see the change immediately.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: And even for this one, it was five years.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I I I feel like one of the most touching things is um it was at the sentencing hearing for the driver, the grandmother, the mother of the woman who was killed that night, uh, told the reporter that that he had been Omar's voice during all this.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and that's that's why we do this is because people who don't have a voice would never have their stories told.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And changes wouldn't happen if people didn't know about it.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: So And I think sometimes people think, I was having a conversation with a friend, and I've after I went to the uh the event for the Lawn Beach Post this last week, and and he was saying, yeah, but aren't there internet publications doing this?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't believe that they're doing this type of investigative journalism.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not this kind.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not this kind.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's being, it's being so like if you're not covering it, who is gonna cover it?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's the thing.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, you need there, there is a, you know, I'm not one of those people who's against AI or I'm not against technology, I'm not against social media, you know.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: But you need to have local people on the ground who are filing public records requests and trying to, you know, sometimes when I was a when I was a reporter, you'd go to people's houses, knock on doors.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have to have those.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of work to do a story that's fair, accurate, um, that's hard, you know, that that is tough.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: We don't publish things unless we're 100% sure that you know we've given everyone a fair shake.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this takes time, it takes, it takes effort, it takes money, it takes resources.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you're not gonna get that with, you know, a national publication or you know, some kind like a wire service or something like that.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Which it that all of that has a place, but we need a strong local reporting staff.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Melissa, you had shown us a graph that we're gonna display, and you said since 2004 there's been 2100 newspapers that have vanished.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Closed completely.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, folks are gonna want to know, well, why is that?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I you know, I was just talking about this.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: So uh and I don't want to give a lecture on the whole history of journalism, but there was a certain, I blame the our industry for a certain level of arrogance.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like I think when radio came along, everyone was saying newspapers were gonna die and it didn't happen.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: When broadcast TV came along, everyone was saying newspapers are gonna die and it didn't happen.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: When the internet came around, everyone was saying newspapers were gonna die and it did happen.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the reason why is a few things.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, people get information for free.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, the internet and social media fundamentally changed our economy and the way we live our lives.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't I don't know that any, you know, there was that anticipation that that would happen, but it was things like Craigslist, the online that destroyed classified advertising.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, before when you looked for a job, not that long ago, you would buy a newspaper because that's how you would find a roommate or whatever.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not how people do that now.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that was first was classified, but then when social media came around, what happened with social media is we lost the distribution.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we lost the channel to reach people before your news would be delivered to your doorstep.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the newspapers, I'm pointing to myself, but I was not elite, I was not one of them, um, controlled that.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: So they owned the printing presses, they paid the the delivery boys.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now all of that has gone to Google and Facebook.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all of that distribution and the ability to get advertising has gone elsewhere.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, what we're really doing at the post, and what I've been working on the past year is figuring out, and I'm not alone, by the way.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to claim credit for any of this, but paving a new way.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, with the nonprofit model, advertising will still be part of our portfolio of our income.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be about a quarter, no more than that.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we have an incredible reach.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a there's a lot of value to advertisers, both the in the print.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned we published four editions this year, we're going to six.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: We're growing growing slow.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this is for the business.
• 12:15
  unknown: Yeah.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: So um there's still value in the product because we reach people and we're trustworthy, and brand alignment is valuable to companies.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: But the other buckets of revenue have to include donations, memberships, which we we have no paywall now.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: We took our paywall down.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: So those are considered small donations, all tax deductible.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then the other thing is grants.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we were able foundation support.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we were able to get almost 200,000 just in seven months in grant funding, which is phenomenal.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be our diversified.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: I know that word's used too much these days, it's almost lost its meaning, but our our revenue has to be diversified in order to make it.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I know that even from and we talked about social media, but even following the Long Beach Post on social media is great.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I follow them on X and I follow them on Instagram, and a lot of my news comes from from the stuff that you guys are are given.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and you're right, it is a trusted source.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and I actually I I cannot take credit because when we joined the post in 2018, the post already existed.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it had existed for many years, and it was a pretty small staff, and they were really the previous the prior to my arrival, they were really pioneers on Instagram.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so the post had the press telegram still does not have an Instagram.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Wild, wild.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we had a solid base, and we have a hundred and almost 108,000 followers on Instagram, which is incredible.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how most people get their news.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, I mean, we're we're big on Instagram, especially.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um Facebook, you know, we don't is pretty stable.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um actually we still get most of our referral traffic still comes from Facebook.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um but uh the Post was really an early adopter of those of those means of communicating.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um Melissa, you're your boots on the ground.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's what's happening that's great with Long Beach moving forward in 2025 for for folks who are in the you know who love the city like we do, what what what exciting things are are happening in 2025?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like news-wise?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: News-wise, anything, whether whether it's business or like you know what, I like the directions the city's taking in this.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Anything you could share with us.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, uh the reason why we we we I have I have um doable goals to grow our staff because there is such a need right now for coverage.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's so much going on in Long Beach.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um I could talk about a lot of things, but the the What are some of the biggest stories?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Port has huge infrastructure projects that are coming in the pipeline.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the city has major in infrastructure work to get ready for the 2028 Olympics, um, which there's already organization around, you know, how we're gonna get the city ready for this massive event.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's a lot of economic issues that are facing the city.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the city uh is winding down its oil operations, um, and they're gonna have to figure out how to fill that hole.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there's some pretty, you know, some challenges for the city to grow other sectors.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, we have a growing space industry here, which is kind of interesting.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: I got to write a little story myself the other day about a company.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, gosh, I hope I don't get this wrong.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: One of our local companies actually pioneered a way to bring rocks back from Mars, which was kind of cool.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um so there's so many different like directions I could go with where where the coverage is needed.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: One of the areas that I'm really hoping to get enough funding in our end-of-year campaign for is education coverage.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's so many young families here who don't have any way of getting independent, reliable information on schools and the school district.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of needs, there's a lot of topics to cover.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um we we um Melissa, our channel is very, very pro-Long Beach.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: We, you know, we're we're uh we help sell Long Beach.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we're yes, we sell real estate, but at the end of the day, people have options.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, you're selling Long Beach.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do we go to San Diego?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Do we go to Carlsbad, Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why should I come here?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Englewood has a stadium.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Every city has something happening, and we're we're here always promoting Long Beach.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we love what what you're doing.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that the folks that that support us that that are watching today, how is it that they could support you and your cause and your mission?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a great question.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, one of the you know, first I will say if you read the post and if you read the business journal, then you should be supporting it at the level you can, you know, and our membership, you know, we consider someone a member if they're on a recurring plan that's only$15 a month.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't take very much, you know, just to become a contributor or a member, and we are so grateful for those individuals.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we we also um need major gifts.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's a big part of, and we consider a major gift anything above$5,000.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: So for this end-of-year campaign, we actually have a 15,000 match that we're trying to raise money against, but also we have an opportunity to get more a bonus for identifying local matches.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: So even if you can put up a thousand dollars as part of this campaign, that that's helpful because we can double it by matching it.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the other way is by sending us news tips.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: We we need news is much better when it's a dialogue with the community when you're talking to us and we're talking to you.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we need story ideas, we need to know what's going on.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Some of our best stories come from people who live here and just reach out.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, share our content, talk about us, you know.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for for sharing about us.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we need people follow, you know, visit our website, lbpost.com, uh, visit visit us on Instagram and share our stuff, you know, that that's there's a lot of power in that too.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: What's the best way for people to I know you just gave the website, but what's the best way for them to contact the post or contact you or or all of our email addresses are just our first name at lbpost.com.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: So mine is Melissa1L2S at lbpost.com.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you can if you go to our you can find all of our contact information.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh the sort of the general inbox is editor at lbpost.com, so if which we all take turns checking, it's massive, but you can email that.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um if you have uh questions about membership, it's just membership at lbpost.com.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we're pretty easy to find on social media too.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: So no, absolutely.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um thank you so much for coming in today.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you the final say.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's anything that you want to say, uh feel free to share with our guests.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, you know, I will say I I'm very grateful, and I'll try, I'll be brief, but I'm very grateful for the previous owner for investing so much into local journalism.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um they turned this company, this this incredible asset that we've built over the past six years to the to the community.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um now news is in the hands of readers, it's in the hands of the public.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that's incredible.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's an incredible power in that, but but we also need to do this together.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we will need participation from the community in the long term to make uh to make sure that our leaders are held accountable and that people have information to make good decisions.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: That will make Long Beach better.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So there you have it, folks.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time.