I’m thankful for Miles Vance Sports Journal and the chance to do what I love.
I’m thankful.
I am.
It may be cliche to offer thanks on — you guessed it — Thanksgiving, but I don’t care. Some traditions are good and worth preserving and this is one of them.
For me, like many other people, it starts with the basics. I am thankful for (and to) my wife of 30 years, Bonnie. She has been faithful, loving, supportive, innovative, interesting, funny, creative, thoughtful, flexible and much, much more.
She has put up with my crazy schedule — working most weeknights during the fall and winter seasons, and crazy, long hours during each high school playoff season — for the duration of our marriage.
She has put up with the modest lifestyle that comes with my line of work and used her intellect to keep us comfortable and solvent, if far, far from affluent. As I’ve told people many times over the years, working for community newspapers (and now, my own small business) is not as lucrative as you might think.
Further, she has been incredibly supportive of my exit from Pamplin Media Group at the end of July, and a month later, the launch of Miles Vance Sports Journal. I could not have done any of it without her.
I’m also thankful for the other people who helped me launch and maintain MVSJ, especially my web designer Mary Ann Aschenbrenner at Waterlink Web (https://waterlinkweb.com/) and Jackie B. Peterson of Portland Community College’s Small Business Development Center. Mary Ann helped me build my website, connect me to the appropriate social media sites, make my posts searchable, set up the subscription system on the site and so much more. She’s been responsive and she’s been able to communicate ideas and concepts in ways that make sense to a somewhat older American (me) who doesn’t have a deep background in that arena. Jackie Peterson led a new business class that helped shape MVSJ and its launch.
Regarding Miles Vance Sports Journal, I am thankful for the opportunity to do the work I love in the way I see fit. After covering high school sports as my primary occupation for 35 of the past 37 years, I know what I’m doing.
I know how to do my job. I know how to serve a market. I know how to connect with teams and athletes, and I know why it’s important.
At the end of my long tenure at Pamplin Media Group, however, management told me I was wrong about how to do things, gave me a market that couldn’t be served by a single person, cut my salary after I worked hundreds of hours for free, and devalued me as an employee. So, after 25 years, I quit.
Miles Vance Sports Journal isn’t financially successful yet, but I am thankful that I made it a reality. I know the market that I serve (Lake Oswego, Lakeridge and West Linn high schools, and community and youth sports in Lake Oswego and West Linn). I know the teams that I cover. I know the athletes on those teams and they know that they can talk to me and trust me.
Now, I just want more people to see the great work that appears on Miles Vance Sports Journal. I want them to see it because that will be better for me financially, sure, but I also want them to see it because no one else covers the teams and athletes at Lake Oswego, Lakeridge and West Linn the way I do.
If you want to see the apex of what that might look like, check out my coverage of the West Linn football team here — bit.ly/3AGBtID.
I hope you’ll subscribe here — https://bit.ly/3dyi4Bm — or consider advertising.
And, obviously, thanks.
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