My View of Life on the Dock
Is the News Dying?
A blogger buddy and I had a back-and-forth recently about the future of news. He had just read a post called, “The incredible shrinking newspaper audience,” and was pessimistic about the future of how people would get their news.
“Scary stuff if you value real news,” the blogger, Joey Ciaramitaro of Good Morning Gloucester, wrote in our Twitter chat.
There are plenty of reasons to be concerned.
For the rest of John’s post click here
That’s Right Johnnycakes- You’re A Superstar.
If you didn’t know already, fashion forward John McElhenny is The VP of Matter Communications- a High Powered PR Agency Which Perennially Wins Numerous Awards In Their Field.
Check Out Matter Communications Here
Joey,
More positive national media coverage for Gloucester: Coastal Living has a great article on Gloucester in next month’s issue. The article calls Gloucester a "Coastal Dream Town" and says Gloucester has a "rare combination of urban spirit and historic charm."
"An enthusiastic nightlife scene featuring live theater and local bands is bolstered by a restaurant renaissance," the article says about our city.
Great job by you and local Remax Realtor (and GoodMorningGloucester contributor) Kenny MacCarthy for talking with the reporter and providing colorful quotes in the story.
Matter Communications started talking with Coastal Living, one of the top lifestyle and travel magazines, about Gloucester two years ago so it’s nice to see such a positive story finally come out! Matter works with the Cape Ann Chamber and local businesses to put the good word out about what a great place Gloucester is to live, work and visit.
Readers can see the Coastal Living story here: http://capeannchamber.com/Tourism/Coastal%20Living.pdf
Congrats, Gloucester!
John McElhenny of Matter Communications writes:
Joey,
Good news: Rand McNally and USA Today have just named Gloucester one of 5 Eco-Friendly Small Towns in America! It’s a nice honor for our city. The article is here.
Rand McNally asked on Twitter this week for nominations of eco-friendly cities. When we tweeted back Gloucester’s designation as a “Green Community” in 2010 – and this GoodMorningGloucester post about it — the editors liked it and included Gloucester in their Top 5 list. As usual, when something positive is happening in Gloucester, GoodMorningGloucester is involved!
Gloucester is still in the running for Rand McNally’s Most Beautiful Small Town in America 2012. If you haven’t voted already, click here and hit the green “Review and Vote” button. Let’s make Gloucester #1!
Arianne Doud from Matter Communications writes-
What better day than this, full of sunshine to show off Gloucester’s beauty, to bring the following to your attention: Rand McNally/USA TODAY has launched their 2012 Best of the Road competition! You may recall from last year, we encouraged voters to narrow down categories for a higher concentration of votes.
This year, let’s take it further: we suggest all voters go to just one category, “Most Beautiful,” to make sure we don’t spread the votes thin.
Go to: http://www.bestoftheroad.com/town.do?destinationId=4272 and contribute your thoughts (and a photo if you can) on what makes Gloucester deserving of the “Most Beautiful” title.
Last year we received 74 submissions. Let’s try to at least double that this year to push Gloucester higher into the winner’s circle!
We’ve teamed up with USA TODAY for the second annual Best of the Road Rally and your town could be a stop! We’ll send amateur travelers across the country exploring the Most Beautiful,Most Patriotic, Friendliest, Most Fun, and Best Small Towns for Food to name the 2012 Best Small Towns in America. Review and vote to get your town on the map, tell us about your favorite local spots, and follow us on and twitter for updates.
Recently, Matter Communications, working on behalf of the Chamber, invited Examiner.com reporter Charlene Peters to visit Gloucester for a weekend of winter fun. As Charlene recently started up a “destination spa” column, we included a visit to The Well of Integrative Medicine, on Main Street. The writer and her husband had a wonderful experience in the expert hands and feet of two of the Well’s massage therapists – read about their experience here:
This is great news for The Well and Gloucester, as Examiner.com receives over 7 million unique visitors a month!
This holiday season, children of Cape Ann have a direct line to Santa’s workshop through SEACOAST NURSING AND REHABILITATION CENTER’S HO-HO HOTLINE. From December 19 through December 23, from 3-5 p.m., children’s calls will be answered by Santa, Mrs. Claus or one of their elves.
While Santa, Mrs. Claus and their helpers won’t make any promises to the children, they will listen to the children’s wishes and encourage them to be on their very best behavior. The phone number for Seacoast’s Ho-Ho Hotline is 978-283-1515.
Laura Bly swung by the dock on July 8th as part of her tour of Gloucester for a story she would be producing. Well that story hit USA Today and the internet today.
Travel writer Laura said she decided to write this story after seeing a story that PR firm Matter Communications worked with one of her colleagues on about cruise ships coming to Gloucester. It ran in USA Today in April. Matter Communications is the PR firm in which my pal John McElhenny works and has been hired to promote Gloucester under the stewardship of the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce.
Congratulations to the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce and kudos to those local businesses who had the vision to hire Matter Communications and lead this positive PR campaign for Gloucester.
You can read it here-
GLOUCESTER, Mass. – Twenty years ago this October, a howling Nor’easter blindsided the New England coast and sank a Gloucester-based swordfish boat at sea with all six hands aboard. Author and then-resident Sebastian Junger weathered the tempest from town, and his best-selling account of the tragedy, The Perfect Storm, prompted a Hollywood film and a wave of visitors curious to learn more about America’s oldest seaport.
Even before the loss of the Andrea Gail and her crew, rampant overfishing by foreign vessels, dwindling fish stocks and stringent government regulations were deep-sixing a once-vibrant marine economy in Gloucester, less than an hour’s drive northeast of Boston.
PHOTOS: Gloucester’s charm and character
Now tourists — including a record 20,000 cruise-ship passengers expected this year — are challenging fishing as the town’s leading economic driver. While parts of the waterfront remain crumbling eyesores, a microbrewery and upscale restaurants have moved in. And that evolution continues to fuel a passionate debate about the close-knit community’s authenticity and seafaring future.
“A lot of the old-timers here are resistant to change,” says Heidi Wakeman, 41, who sells high-end tote bags made from recycled sailcloth at a local shop called Again and Again.
“There’s still a public hunger,” says Wakeman, for the iconic fisherman represented by Gloucester’s “Man at the Wheel,” a statue of an old salt in a slicker and sou’wester gazing resolutely toward the open sea.
I find it incredibly ironic that she writes in the top part of the story with a picture that-
The most iconic structure in Gloucester is the Tarr & Wonson Paint Manufactory, a marine paint factory built in 1863. Vacant since the 1980s, it has been purchased by the Ocean Alliance and will be used as a research and public outreach center.
In light of the proposed demolition.
For the entire Gloucester article from Laura Bly at USAToday click here
Here are some pictures of Laura and I that Craig Kimberly took while he was down the dock-(click pic for slideshow)
and here are some of my photos she used in the story on USAToday-
Here is good egg Heidi Wakeman who was quoted in the USAToday article talking about her feelings for Gloucester in a GMG interview 3 years ago-
and part II
Click the screen shot below to check out MatterCommunications.com video and my buddy John McElhenney’s blog post featuring GMG and some social media tips from your boy Joey.
PR for Gloucester, the effort to promote Gloucester and boost our economy through positive media coverage, recently won two awards that highlight how well it’s working and the great articles that have been written about Gloucester in the past year.
You may remember PR for Gloucester was started by Tracey Muller, owner of the Bass Rocks Ocean Inn, Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bob Hastings and other Gloucester businesspeople. They hired the public relations firm Matter Communications to take back control of Gloucester’s image.
Over the last year, PR for Gloucester and Matter landed 46 positive articles about Gloucester and dozens of our businesses, reaching a total audience of 127 million people. Stories about Gloucester appeared in USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post,CapeCodToday.com, PlanetEyeTraveler and a bunch of other outlets. People around the country read these stories and then come shop in our stores and go out on our whale watch boats and eat in our restaurants. This kind of coverage is good for all of our businesses.
People are noticing PR for Gloucester’s success. This week, PR for Gloucester and Matter Communications won a Bell Ringer award, which is given by the Publicity Club of New England to successful PR campaigns. It’s the second award in two weeks. Last week, PR for Gloucester and Matter also won a Communicator Award, a national prize that honors excellence in communications.
The best part about all of this is it’s an effort that Gloucester businesses and the Cape Ann Chamber started themselves to put out a positive image of Gloucester, bring visitors here, and help all of our businesses. If you want to donate to help keep PR for Gloucester going, contact Bob Hastings at the Chamber at h@capeannchamber.com.
Joey,
We all know Cape Ann has some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere. The great images in GoodMorningGloucester everyday are proof!
National magazine Coastal Living is asking people to send in their best island-related photos for an upcoming issue about islands. Think Ten Pound Island. Salt Island. Thacher Island. Straitsmouth Island.
Photos should be sent as attachments to coastallivingmag@gmail.com , with the name of the sender, phone number and description of the photo (including where and when it was taken) in the body of the email. The image should be in .tif or .eps format and at least 300 dpi. One photo entry per reader.
More than 625,000 people read Coastal Living every month, so we would be showcasing Cape Ann’s beauty to a large, national audience.
Thanks,
John McElhenny
Gloucester
matter COMMUNICATIONS for Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce
Click on the article to see her entire piece.
This was forwarded by John McElhenny from Matter Communications
Bob Hastings Executive Director of The Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce and Tracey Muller from the Bass Rocks Ocean Inn interview in which they explain a new public relations campaign started by a grass roots group of Gloucester business people.
Click here for the HD version if you have a fast internet connection
Gloucester, Mass. – The Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce has hired Matter Communications, an award-winning North Shore public relations firm, to boost Gloucester’s profile as a premier destination and attract tourists and business visitors from around the country who will spend money at local businesses, strengthen the economic climate and improve the quality of life for residents.
“It’s time we stop letting others define us and take the lead in getting the word out about what a beautiful, historic and colorful place Gloucester is,” said Bob Hastings, executive director of the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce. “Attracting more leisure and business travelers will strengthen all of our businesses, from tourist-based businesses along the Back Shore and Harbor to the shops and restaurants downtown and throughout the city where visitors shop and eat.”
The public relations effort, which was launched by Gloucester hotel-owners Tracey Muller of Bass Rocks Ocean Inn, Mona Faherty of the Sea Lion Motel and Jan Bordinaro of the Atlantis Oceanfront Inn, will focus on promoting Gloucester but may expand to include other Cape Ann communities.
Matter Communications, based in Newburyport, executes public relations programs on behalf of a broad portfolio of clients in consumer, high-technology and consumer-technology markets. The firm’s clients include national companies such as CVS/pharmacy, Verizon Wireless, Harris Corporation and Lexar. Gloucester residents John McElhenny and Ariane Doud will lead Matter’s PR campaign for Gloucester.
“Gloucester is the most authentic seaport in America and those of us who live here know there is no shortage of fascinating, positive Gloucester stories to tell,” said McElhenny. “There’s an untapped, nationwide market for Gloucester’s entrepreneurial businesses, scenic beauty, cultural richness and maritime identity. PR will give Gloucester a megaphone to tell its stories, attract new visitors and power the local economy.”
About the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce
The Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce serves as the principal voice of business on Cape Ann. Its mission is to enhance the economic environment and the quality of life for the citizens of Cape Ann. For more information, go to http://www.capeannchamber.com.
Media Contact
John McElhenny, Matter Communications
(978) 499-9250 ext. 239
Gloucester@matternow.com
Good Morning Gloucester 