I am now officially part of the vile media class I hate so much.

i.e., as of last week I own 10% of a paper n’ ink “dinosaur media” newspaper.

Why would I become a part of that which I so despise (the mass media)?

Well, because of this:

Many years ago — way back in 2007 — I got hired by a guy who was doing business with Dan Kennedy’s printer friend (Pete the Printer) to go through a whole bunch of Dan’s old ‘NO BS Marketing Letters’ and write ezine articles out of them. It was one helluva edu-ma-cation, too. And while the gig didn’t pay all that much, the knowledge I learned, started using, and am still using to this day was priceless.

Example:

One of the themes he kept hammering home was “own your own media.”

The more the merrier.

Got an email list?

Good.

That’s your own media.

Direct mail list? Website? Membership site? Mobile app? Podcast? Print newsletter? YouTube? Social media account? All various forms of media. Some medias are better than others, of course. Most you won’t own, and can be taken from you (social media accounts, YouTube account, iTunes, etc). And a few you do own as an asset (direct mail and email list — if you are wise enough to export it, at least.)

Anyway, I remember thinking hard about that.

It’s one reason I wanted to do a print newsletter, for example, and later invested in a mobile app company we sell at Learnistic. Those who possess my elBenbo Press book can see how I use all my various media platforms — including my print books, which are each their own “media” the way I use them — so I am not going to belabor that here. But I do remember around 2019 when gearing up to start writing my elBenbo Press book realizing that one day I would like to own a whole other kind of media:

A newspaper.

Why?

Because I love the print business.

And it’s why I continue doing it even though year-by-year with inflation, paper shortages, flakey delivery services, etc it’s getting less and less practical… not to mention the growing number of adults who are functionally illiterate and can only follow short attention span-friendly medias.

This is no joke, either.

Just yesterday I heard from a guy who had his first Email Players rebill and asked what he could expect now, and am I sending him a new book each month like the Email Players Skhema Book? I almost thought he was joking. Especially considering the sales letter is written in a way where even a 4th grader can follow it, with a big yellow page after that reminding you again of what you’re buying… not to mention two boxes that require being ticked before one can even advance to the order form at all that also tell you what you’re getting… and then the offer summarized in more 4th grade level language in bullets right on the form one more time just in case.

Yeesh.

Doesn’t bode well for anyone selling anything that requires more than 5-seconds of reading to consume if that’s where it’s headed. But I don’t care and do print anyway. And my long time customers are lightyears ahead of the typical crowd fapping to all-things digital.

Anyway, back to newspapers:

Stefania used to say back when I first told her 5 years ago I wanted a newspaper:

“Well Ben, you said you want a newspaper, that means you’ll have one.”

And for the next few years after that I looked around at the possibility of buying one of the local papers here (which has like 2,000 circulation, if that, and no idea if they’d have sold it to me anyway). Or, maybe, just started my own. But the problem with that is time. I only have so much of that precious commodity. And as much as I enjoyed the idea of having a little print rag, the time investment of running it, my hatred of dealing with employees, having to diddle around with yet another company’s books and taxes and day-to-day, etc would have taken me away from other activities I would rather spend that time on.

So I put it all on the shelf and just kept my eyes open.

Then, a few years ago, Email Players subscriber Richard Emmons went and did what I didn’t:

He founded a newspaper!

A pro-freedom newspaper that is what the media is supposed to be:

A government watchdog and not a government lapdog.

He lives about 2.5 hours from where I am in the same state, but in a different county, yet close enough where his news has an effect on where I am at. I really digged on what he was doing, too, and supported it. By that I mean, yes, I of course subscribed… but I also made a couple decent-sized donations to it to help his Mission with it, and do my little part to help him turn the tide of corruption and all-around misery, drugs, & death that plagues this state. Calling Oregon a “shyt show” is more literal than not in many areas. And with the influx of Californians bringing their idiotic voting patterns with them that created the problems they are fleeing, it is only getting worse.

Fast forward to a few months ago:

On a lark I told him if he was interested in taking on investors I’d be game.

I don’t know if that was his plan all along or if I planted the seed.

But as of a week ago I am now officially 10% owner of The Oregon Eagle.

And the timing couldn’t be better.

Especially with the election coming up.

(Will likely write a lot about this)

Stefania is also a reporter for it – covering our county – and she has already helped start the process of exposing some potentially corrupt shenanigans going on with a ridiculously high property tax levy so big it will, quite literally, send a lot of retirees here to join the homeless population (it’s bad) if it passes, with suspiciously little transparency and a whole lot of double talk that she documented.

She’s from New York where this kind of corruption is practically a trope.

So she has a special interest in helping stop it.

Anyway, back to the point:

Owning this particular kind of media goes far beyond just an email list, direct mail list, social media, mobile app, print newsletter etc. And it opens up all kinds of new possibilities for not only my business, but potentially for some of my other businesses, not to mention an opportunity to help have real impact on politics and the culture instead of just arguing and complaining about it on the internet and social media all day like everyone else does.

No, I have no real responsibilities or any editorial control.

Nor do I do any copywriting or emails or anything like that for it.

I am mostly just a resource of knowledge and marketing ideas if/when needed.

But, it’s my toe-hold into the print newspaper world.

And now that I am in?

I daresay it’s time to outdo Hearst and get to work starting WW3..

Whatever the case, there’s probably no reason to subscribe if you’re not in this state.

But if you are, and want to check it out, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com/oregoneagle 

Ben Settle