By Picket Fence Media Publisher and CEO Norb Garrett
They say good things happen in threes, so with that in mind …
First, I’m excited to announce that I’ve promoted Shawn Raymundo to managing editor for Picket Fence Media. Shawn’s been with us for three years, first covering San Juan Capistrano as city editor for The Capistrano Dispatch, then moving over to the San Clemente Times to take over as San Clemente city editor two years ago.
He’s done a great job covering the City of San Clemente, earning numerous writing awards, and will continue to cover important news stories while also overseeing our newsroom and our city reporters. He can be reached at sraymundo@picketfencemedia.com or 949.388.7700, ext. 113.
We’ve also hired a new San Clemente city reporter, C. Jayden Smith, to cover the daily happenings in the community. Jayden, who is from Dana Point and graduated from Dana Hills High in 2018, earned his journalism degree from the University of North Texas.
Jayden was most recently a staff reporter at the Salina Journal in Kansas. He can be reached at cjsmith@picketfencemedia.com or 949.388.7700, ext.108.
Lastly, some news about a hyper-local media network I’ve helped to create, which includes Picket Fence Media.
For the past 18 months during the pandemic, I reached out to fellow area independent, hyper-local community media owners in an effort to share ideas and resources as we all battled to stay alive and continue serving our communities.
Each week, for months on end, four other Southern California owners/publishers and I would get on Zoom calls and talk through ways to pivot our businesses and help each other not only survive, but hopefully thrive once the ruinous economic impact of the pandemic fades away (which, of course, it hasn’t yet).
The camaraderie led to the formation of a new community media advertising network, Southern California Community Media Network (socalmedianetwork.com), which we formally launched two weeks ago.
Now, any of our advertising partners who wish to reach potential consumers in nearby Laguna Beach or Newport Beach, or down in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Temecula, Fallbrook or all the way down to San Diego, can do so through our network, which reaches more than 1.7 million engaged readers.
I’m so grateful for the friendship, guidance and vision of my fellow publisher/owners—Steve Zepezauer (Firebrand Media), Julie Reeder (Reeder Media), Chris Kydd (The Coast News) and Julie Main (San Diego Community Newspaper Group)—who helped form this new network.
So, please join me in congratulating Shawn, welcoming Jayden, and checking out our new network partners.
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