A New Year is Upon Us......Have a Happy, Healthy 2008

Well Friends, New Years Day has come and gone. A lot has happened in the past year. January was when your friendly neighborhood Sales and Marketing Director, ME!, officially started, last January 1st, (although I was there full time since around December of '06, but hey, at least in January a paycheck started, lol.)


Of course the biggest thing for Accent Media, was our move to Downtown Youngstown, after 4 years in the old Howland office. The 650 square feet of Howland was great when the company was just Chip, and then a couple more came aboard. By the time I started in December of '06, we were up to 6 of us and an Intern. As fate would have it, we met our now very close friends Mary Jo Maluso, and husband Rick Blackson. The couple known throughout the Valley for their vocal and instrumentation skills, as well as their work in front of and behind the camera, had a project they wanted to talk to us about. In the conversation we talked about our need for more room and Mary Jo recommended the old PharMor Building at 20 Federal Place in Youngstown. The 7th floor used to host Pharmor's production studios, and Mary Jo's mom Claire, worked in the building and could get us a tour of the place. Of course it was love at first sight. The 4,500 available square feet was perfect for growing into. We could use half of it immediately, and have first option on the second half as soon as we were ready. No walls would have to be moved, there was a sound room and a special effects room and a full studio all just waiting to be used. Three months of hard labor later, painting, decorating, moving equipment in, etc., we proudly held our Open House on Thursday, August 16th with none other than Rick and Mary Jo singing for us as we invited 300 of our friends and neighbors to check out the new spot. We love showing off the place and giving tours, so if you havent had a chance to stop by, just give me a call and I will take you on a personal guided tour, anytime Monday thru Friday, from 9am to 5pm.


2007 also gave us some great new Interns, both production and marketing, and new employees, and a sad farewell to a couple of our valued employees, moving on to other adventures in their lives. With school an important part of some of our editors lives still, we are proud of the accomplishments they have achieved and are pursuing. We wish them the best luck in this Spring semester and will try not to work them too hard while here at work.....(like that would ever happen, they are always working on about 3 projects at once.) We look forward to some new Interns in the coming year, and hopefully hiring a couple of our old Interns as they finish up this last semester at school.


We are heading into the new year with a lot of new clients and are looking to grow even bigger in 2008. I have just started closing out the books on 2007 and I am happy to report that Accent Media's sales grew more than 40% last year, and we are projecting to grow as least as much in 2008. Accent Media welcomes new clients such as Jump Stretch, Prima Health Care, Kent State Univeristy, and hopefully YOU!! We are proud to be working with with Adtronico and the many new clients they are bringing to Accent as well. American Gladiator Fitness, the Eastwood Mall, Austintown ER, are just a few of the clients they are working with and we are happy to be making their projects look the best in Northeast Ohio.


Being in downtown Youngstown has been an exciting time for us as well. We have become good friends with a lot of our neighbors here, and are looking forward to be even more involved in downtown activities in 2008. Fellow blogger friend Phil Kidd will soon be taking over as the Downtown events coordinator as Accent's friend Claire Maluso takes some time to enjoy retiremement with her great husband John. Phil's leadership in his Defend Youngstown blog and campaign makes him the ideal replacement. Phil's enthusiasm for the city rivals most of our elected officials and they are lucky to be working together now with such a fine young man. We are looking forward to lots of new ideas building upon the progress that Downtown Youngstown has already made. We are looking forward to the Bean Counter's Jason coming back with a concept by a new owner but in the same location. Rumor says work will begin again at the building above them, and I am looking forward of it actually happening this time around. You will probably also be able to catch me many evenings at the new Rosetta Stone Cafe. I cant resist a great cup of coffee and wireless internet after work to unwind, or to finish up some work outside of the office environment. I look forward to a happy and prosperous 2008 blogger friends...and hope the same to you all as well.........Scott Sales and Marketng Director, Accent Media, LLC.