PosiPress Project aims to make NEPA news a little more optimistic
Northeastern Pennsylvania can be a great place to live, work, and enjoy quality entertainment, but it doesn’t always seem that way with all the negative news that the local and national media tends to focus on. The PosiPress Project is looking to change that, but it requires community involvement to work.
Gerard Durling, a Kingston resident and founder of Wilkes-Barre web design and mobile app development company Coal Creative, started NEPA Wire as a way for people to share positive stories with NEPA media that may normally get lost in the shuffle by constructing a simple form to submit stories in a professional, easy-to-read manner.
Durling explains his philosophy behind the website and how it all works on the front page:
Every morning that we wake up to watch or read the news, we’re surrounded by negative news effecting Northeastern Pennsylvania. It’s so hard to feel inspired or hopeful for our community when there’s so much attention spent on the wrong things.
We take these stories with us to work, to school, wherever we go. We want to blame the media for publishing all this negative news and the media wants to blame us for not submitting enough positive news.
It’s my opinion that neither of us are right or wrong, and we need a solution for this communication problem we’re having.
Here’s the truth: if you look at any given media outlet, they receive hundreds of emails every day.
Emails from local people, and emails from national companies sending out press releases in the hopes of catching a regional news outlet on a slow day.
I’ve never worked for the media, but if I received that many emails in a day, I don’t know when I would find the time to sort through them all. It’s easy for me to see how stories can sometimes become lost in the shuffle. And by the time I read them, it might already be too late to help.
I’m not trying to defend the media, but I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt…
… and the opportunity to make it right.
I created NEPA Wire to help guide local people through the process of submitting a story/press release. The basic information that the media is looking for to start on a news story. Upon submitting your press release, the form will be reviewed and then sent to the appropriate local media contacts with the subject line “NEPA+ Your Story’s Subject Here”.
My hope is that by adding the “NEPA+” to the start of Email Subject Lines that it will make it much easier for our media outlets to find these positive stories from local people.
How does this work? It only works with your support! Please share this website to let our community know we’re here to help,
NEPA Scene has joined the many participating local newspaper, radio, and television outlets to directly support the project. Stories can be shared now via nepawire.com, and any positive stories involving the local arts and entertainment community can always be e-mailed to NEPA Scene directly at richnepascene@gmail.com.
