HARK!
I hear…a pitch…
Get your credit cards ready, folks–HARK Valley is about to start chargin’!
Wait!!!–before you hit “mark as spam,” “delete all,” etc., allow me to explain.
Most important: You will continue to receive HARK Valley Basic newsletters delivered to your email for FREE. (You don't have to do anything.)
But–there will be an option soon to sign up for HARK Valley Premium offerings.
AND–being an “early supporter,” you will be eligible for a BIG DISCOUNT.
What will the premium offerings actually be?
Great question. Thanks for asking. Love your outfit today, by the way…(shuffles papers, clears throat, stalls for time)...HV Premium is still being perfected, but it will likely involve some or all of the following to take it to the next level:
*Premium members-only live video streams of concerts, comedy shows and other events.
*Behind-the-scenes videos, also only available at the Premium level.
*Expanded, deep-dive profiles of musicians, comedians, writers, etc.
*Hard-hitting (no fluff) reviews of restaurants.
*Excerpts from a soon-to-be-published novel called The Immaculate Jagoffs (you have to be from Pittsburgh to “get it n at”).
In general, HV Premium will be in keeping with the unpredictable, anything-goes nature of HV Basic.
If you’re a relatively new subscriber, or even if you’ve been subscribing since the jump, a little background here may be helpful:
Since the late-80s, I’ve been covering local news and/or entertainment for tiny, medium and large publications, ranging from the North Coast News (Ocean Shores, two hours from Seattle) to the Seattle Times to the Mesa Tribune.
I was the managing editor of the latter in May of 2021, when I came across an ad: “Facebook – Newsletter Opportunity for Local Journalists.” Though I thought newsletters were “a 1980s thing,” I did a little research and learned, yep, emailed newsletters are “a 2020s thing”; being a longtime local journalist, I figured I was more or less what FB was looking for, and sent in my pitch:
A newsletter focusing on under-covered Phoenix/Valley/Arizona musicians, artists, comedians, etc.
After a few pitch meetings, Facebook shocked me with a green light. Then came webinars, workshops and individual meetings to figure out the technicalities of my newsletter and how Facebook’s Bulletin platform would look for users and work for “creators” like me.
At the end of June, I wrote my first few newsletters–but they were still in the private/test phase.
My public “launch date” was Aug. 19–meaning a handful of friends and families who were the first subscribers to the then-entirely free newsletter started getting my stories via email.
Also on Aug. 19, Facebook/Meta announced the launch:
By Campbell Brown, VP, Global News Partnerships
In April we announced a $5 million commitment to support independent local journalists interested in starting or continuing their work on Facebook Bulletin. Today, we are pleased to share the 25 writers selected from the application process with our partners the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).
The release gave summaries of the Bulletins, including:
Tom Scanlon, HARK Valley: Veteran journalist Tom Scanlon (un)covers blaring bar bands, cranky comics, pissed poets, rejected writers, agitated artists and others who have stories to tell/yell in Arizona.
Eleven months later, I’m still a little shocked to see HARK Valley’s Facebook page has 12,000-plus followers…
…and, far more important, the HV newsletter has 550-plus subscribers. My first-year goal was 150 to 200 subs, so that has been blown away, in a good way…
Thank you for subscribing!
And it would be great to hear ideas you have for HV Premium. What do you think would work best?
What kind of stuff do you hate and don’t want to go near?
Click on the comment button and share your thoughts–or email harkvalley@gmail.com.