Commentary-Yes, We Are A Real Newspaper

Commentary — By Buddy Sampson on September 11, 2011 at 9:57 pm

September 11, 2011 

We give honor to the casualities of September 11, 2001.  

You know, in the Bible somewhere it says that “A wise man stays cool when insulted.” Now normally I try to follow that credo, but recently, we were insulted beyond measure. It was said that The Scoop LA “isn’t a real newspaper.” Readers, in case you’ve wondered, we are a real newspaper. We are formerly The Scoop Newspaper, which was founded by my dear friend, Jim Shields, who decided to not print the publication any longer in 2008. I took over the paper and promptly put it online. 

We still have many of the features that the former Scoop Newspaper had, including “People You Should Know,” a column that Jim Shields named for my column, which started in 1990. We still have “Restaurant Row,” “Community News,” and our flagship feature Ms. Scoop. I started writing for The Scoop in 1989 and have been able to interview many stars, politicians and musicians. I’ve written for The Watts Times, The Herald Dispatch, for Larry Flynt’s magazines, for Black Meetings and Tourism Magazine, for Essence Magazine, for RapPages Magazine, Hi Def Magazine, for The LA Weekly and for many, many other publications. One of my obits on a good friend, Howard Morehead, was published in the Los Angeles Times Newspaper. I worked as a National Sales Coordinator for Larry Flynt Publications and learned the nuances of Sales and how to run publications from the best in our industry. Jim Shields took me under his wing, and I learned the newspaper business from the ground up, using a huge typesetter. I worked as a Proofreader for Merrill Corporation and Touche Ross and Company and as a Quality Control Specialist at the Transcription Company in Burbank, where my job was to proofread typists’ transcriptions. (I know many of you are surprised I was a proofreader- a reader sent me a note recently that the site was “rife with errors,”- we will fix them!) 

Throughout my short stint as a Publisher, I’ve learned a lot of lessons. I’ve seen and experienced the loss of several writers, including two that have passed away, Eugenia Wright and our beloved Deidra Burtonelli. I’ve had to let go writers that don’t believe in professionalism and some of them have went on to bigger and better things. Many of our old advertisers want to see a printed paper and the economy has dictated that we stay online. Printing costs are expensive and many of our colleagues in the industry have closed their doors. But we are still here. Now we can probably do what many of our colleagues in the industry do and print press releases and AP stories (and we’ve considered the idea) but we’ve always wanted to have original reporting that is exclusive to The Scoop LA. But we’ve done well. We just need advertisers and investors and we can get more great stories for you. We will modify our concept a bit and critique movies and restaurants, but we will mostly stay true to our inspirational stories. We’ve grown from 500 hits on a GoDaddy website to 215,000 hits in the month of August 2011, with 12,000 visitors. Still a modest number, but we’ve gotten that number without active promotion and marketing. We thank you for visiting our site. 

We appreciate the feedback that you’ve given us and we will be showing a lot more video interviews in hopes of keeping the content of our site a lot more current. We are looking to have more writers report on the stories you want us to publish. However, if you want tabloid journalism or gossip, you will not find it in our publication. We only write positive news-news to inspire and encourage. 

Signature at the Falcon 

 

  

I’ve had the pleasure of playing in July at my good friend David Harrison Levi’s event at the Falcon Restaurant in Hollywood. It was a terrific event and the band I played with, Signature, was awesome. Some people are still quite surprised about my playing (I play the bass.) We rocked the house that night and I’d like to give a huge shout out to Butch on keyboards, Greg on drums, Bill on guitar and Guyo on vocals. Calista Carradine sat in with us and she was awesome. Lisa Lewolt sang and she was great. Thank you to Signature and David Harrison Levi for allowing me to grace the stage at a wonderful event.

 

  

Buddy Sampson and Friends 

Against everything I believe in, I’ve been urged to promote myself more. Okay. I plan on debuting my new band, Buddy Sampson and Friends at the Falcon in Hollywood on Thursday November 10, 2011. I know you’ll love it and hope you’ll be there.

Final Thoughts 

On this day, September 11, 2011, we’d like to extend our prayers to the nation and to the world for all those who died in the unfortunate attack in New York. It is a day we’ll never forget and we’d like to take time to honor the true heroes, the firefighters, the police and the citizens who lost their lives, some of them unselfishly to save others. We hope that even in tragedy, that there are lessons learned- ones of tolerance and love. Embrace the feelings of forgiveness, for others that have wronged you and learn to forgive yourself as well. Trust in God during these tough times and we love you here at The Scoop LA. 

We are seeking local writers in Los Angeles to cover movies, plays and events. Additionally, we are seeking sales coordinators to sell advertising. Call us at (323) 919-2848. Also contact us if you are a potential investor or advertiser. We’d love to speak to you.

Many Blessings to All of you and much love. One Love!