FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com JULY 2, 2015 • ANNIVERSARY • THE QUEENS COURIER 3 30th ANNIVERSARY A Letter from the Publisher, Victoria Schneps-Yunis When I began The Queens Courier 30 years ago, I invested $250, had a dream and a mission. It was to make our community an even better place by creating a newspaper full of neighborhood news. We’ve come far in the three decades since publishing our fi rst paper out of my Bayside living room with my four children surrounding me. Our motto is “We’re all about you,” and that’s our mission as a media company: to inform, to bring people together, to give Queens residents a voice for the issues that matter most to them. As our reputation grew, so did the interest from people living in other parts of our great borough. Residents in neighborhoods north, south and west began coming to us requesting coverage, so we began publishing a Queens Courier for the northeast and the west and, later, the Courier- Sun serving the southern neighborhoods of our borough. We also launched our Spanish language paper, El Correo, to reach out to Queens’ fastgrowing Hispanic population. Beyond our newspapers, we expanded our media company into events. I realized 15 years ago while attending functions in Queens that few of our borough’s most prominent women were being recognized for their incredible contributions to our community. Out of this need, I developed our “Top Women in Business, The Ultimate Networking Event,” and it has become the borough’s most successful event. This year’s Top Women in Business event, held in May, drew over 900 movers and shakers. We’ve drawn hundreds more to other networking events now held monthly by our “Star Network” not just in Queens but also in Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx. Anyone who reads newspapers knows that the print industry has changed tremendously over the last three decades, and we’ve worked hard not only to keep up with the changing demands for news, but also to stay on the cutting edge of technology. I’m so blessed that my son, Joshua, is leading this effort, bringing his 21st-century mindset to our business. We are now a digital, print, web and events company. In the weeks to come, we will launch QNS.com, a state-of-the-art news website serving our borough and giving every one of our 2.3 million residents the opportunity to stay informed and network as a community. Our website has over 1 million page views, and we’ve expanded our social network reach on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Our daily email news blasts also reach over 40,000 people! I’m also very proud to have acquired over the last fi ve years two well-established newspapers that also further strengthen our presence in the community. Our purchase of the Home Reporter and Brooklyn Spectator in 2011 expanded our reach into Brooklyn, and the acquisition of the Ridgewood Times and Times Newsweekly this year has not only fortifi ed our presence in western Queens, but will also help us expand into Bushwick, Greenpoint and Williamsburg. For years, I’ve heard people say print is “dead,” but The Courier and our sister publications are stronger than ever. This past week, we published a combined 332 pages of content between The Courier, Courier-Sun, Home Reporter, Ridgewood Times and El Correo. That’s proof positive, as Mark Twain might have said, the rumors of the print medium’s demise are “greatly exaggerated!” We thank our readers and advertisers for their loyalty through the years and we remain committed to continuing to grow our award-winning media company for many more years to come! A Letter from the Co-Publisher, joshua Schneps It has now been 13 years since I have joined the company my mother founded in our home 30 years ag o. It has been a tremendous “ride” growing up around a business and being a part of its growth and evolution. We are in a unique business that allows us to reach thousands of people every day and make real change for the better. Our company today is very different from the one my mother started, but the mission has never changed. We are all about our readers and fostering relationships. We look forward to continuing to grow with our readers and the advertisers that make it all possible to provide award-winning respected news, in most cases at no cost to our readers. We have thrived with the mentality of continuing to grow, change and start new products. That has been in the form of newspapers, magazines, events, websites, email newsletters, social media outlets and other forms of promotion including the Long Island City Flea and Food Market. Many people ask us how we can continue to grow and take on new projects. The simple answer is we have the best team in the business in every department of our company including editorial, digital, art, sales, events, distribution and accounting. We have also gained the trust and respect of clients who believe in what we do and recognize that we provide results to help them grow their businesses. We look forward to the next 30 years! Then and Now: 1985 and 2015 1985 2015* President Ronald Reagan Barack Obama Governor Mario Cuomo Andrew Cuomo Mayor Edward Koch Bill de Blasio Borough President Donald Manes Melinda Katz #1 song on Billboard charts Careless Whisper by Wham! See You Again by Wiz Khalifa #1 movie at box offi ce Back to the Future Avengers: Age of Ultron #1 TV drama Dynasty NCIS #1 TV sitcom The Cosby Show The Big Bang Theory Tonight Show host Johnny Carson Jimmy Fallon Avg. price of home $98,100 $228,700 Whitestone Bridge toll $1.50 $8 NYC subway fare 90 cents $2.75 Highest grossing Broadway show Cats The Lion King Mets record 98-64 (at season’s end) 40-37 U.S. Open Men’s winner Ivan Lendl Marin Cilic (2014) U.S. Open Women’s winner Hana Mandlíková Serena Williams (2014) Belmont Stakes winner Creme Fraiche American Pharoah Note: 2015 stats are through June 30
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