Business

Moss column: And they said we wouldn't make it

By Bill Moss, Published: May 10, 2017

They said we wouldn’t make it five minutes, five weeks or five months but here we are, celebrating our fifth birthday.
After we created our company in February 2012, we went live with HendersonvilleLightning.com on April 24 and debuted the print issue on Wednesday, May 9, with coverage of the Tuesday primary.
That issue was chock-full of news because we had gotten a head start on reporting. Since we had launched the website three weeks earlier, I had been on the street reporting for six weeks when the inaugural issue went to press.
The launch gets ahead of the story.
People ask me why I made the Lightning. So many ask, in fact, that’s it the topic of my standard stump speech when civic clubs invite me to speak. I made a stab at answering why I made the Lightning in a column on our second birthday, in May 2014.
I recalled how I plunged back into covering news during my consulting job in 2010 and 2011 fixing broken newspapers. I had forgotten how much fun on-the-ground reporting was.
At the risk of a rerun for longtime readers, here’s part of what I said then:
“Because they see me at so many meetings, fundraisers and news events, people ask me if I ever sleep. Yes, I do. But I’m more excited than ever to get up early and go scout for news. Armed with nothing more than a pen, a pad and a Canon, I might fill a notebook and snap a hundred frames before noon. To me it’s fun work but also important work. Local news matters.
“How come I made the Lightning? Because I wanted to try and practice a brand of journalism that was as good as our extraordinary community deserved.”
I think it’s worked. What matters more is the number of people who take the trouble to tell me it’s working. I keep them all in a document called Yay Lightning! I’m now on Yay Lightning 2. It’s 4,007 words. Yay Lightning 1 was 4,748 words.
Here are three recent comments:
• “Thank goodness Hendersonville has the ‘Lightning.’ It is the ONLY access we now have to LOCAL news. The news is clear, concise and honest. No worries here about ‘bias’ in any form. Thank you to the entire staff!”
• “In re your editorial on Walk of Fame. That took courage, Bill. Thanks.”
• My favorite paper to read!!!! I like knowing what’s going on around Henderson County, not so much the whole country. Great job at covering the most important things that matter to the natives of Henderson County.”

* * * * *

But enough about me.
We could not have done it without the Friends of the Lightning, the angel investors who took a chance and provided the working capital back in late 2011 and early 2012. I prayed that we would make payroll, cover expenses and turn the corner and we did before 2012 ended. When the Hendersonville Lightning was nothing more than a concept and a prospectus, attorney Sharon Alexander of Prince Youngblood & Massagee guided me through the process of organizing a company and trained me in corporate governance.
I remember thinking, She’s a darn good business lawyer; that must be her specialty. Wrong. She’s a savvy, tough and skilled general practitioner. If I had a First Amendment emergency, she was right there. She didn’t just have good answers and good advice. She had the steel nerve to defend and advocate for the Lightning against any legal threat that might come our way.

* * * * *

We could never have started the Lightning without Denise Ward as our original news designer and Zollie Ward as distribution coordinator for the first three years. Paula Roberts built up our roster of advertising partners for the first 4½ years of our existence. She’s succeeded by Melanie Matteson, who is becoming a terrific advertising and marketing consultant for our advertising partners.
Jan Chapin is now in the role of news designer, receptionist, office manager, legal advertising coordinator. John Dunn is our reliable and always hard-working distribution coordinator. John is the one who’s out in the predawn cold, rain and snow filling the racks so the Lightning is on the street before first light on Wednesday.
Finally, our marketing and advertising sales consultant Ruth Birge has helped us in too many ways to list. I told her once I have a button on my phone that says “Panic!” It calls Ruth. If there were ever any hazardous shoals, Ruth was there to help steer.
Hundreds more people deserve credit for the Lightning’s success. I don’t know all their names. They are our readers and advertising partners. Without them, the Lightning would not have made that five-week or five-month lifespan I mentioned at the top. So, thanks, y’all, for reading the Lightning and supporting the Lightning.

* * * * *

I’ve been lucky in my newspaper career over 41 years to have had stops at newspapers that weren’t in it primarily for the money. The first was the Salisbury Post, owned at that time by the Hurley family, and the second was the St. Petersburg Times, a half-million circulation daily that’s owned by a nonprofit journalism think tank. A newspaper that’s not in it for the money is really hard to find these days. One of my great joys is the Quixotic fight against that convention. Because we’re independent, we can’t be bossed, bullied or bluffed. We make news decisions based on what’s right for the readership and the community, not what’s right for Wall Street. Wall Street has no appreciation for one of my credos: Good journalism is good business.
In my Lightning stump speech, I explain our commitment with a declaration followed by a question.
“I’m the creator, founder, owner, chairman, president, CEO, publisher, editor, photographer and reporter of the Hendersonville Lightning,” I tell the audience. “Which one of these titles is the most important?”
And you know what?
The audience always gets it right.
Reporter.
It’s the job I’m proudest of. It’s the Lightning’s gift to the community, not just on our fifth birthday but every day.
Plenty of towns have a newspaper that has reporters.
Hendersonville has a reporter that owns a newspaper.