After 36 + years Father Les Singleton will retire in November. Episcopal Church of the Mediator. Sunday November 24 will be Les’ final service at Church of Mediator.
SIGNET Research Inc.
Do Readers Still Want Print?
Back in 2010, Signet Research, Inc. released data on readers’ platform preferences when consuming content in media brand issues. The objective was to learn whether the sentiment that print was a fading format, was premature and exaggerated. The results showed a strong preference for the print format over the digital version.
Signet continued to gather data for the last 10 years and recently provided our clients with the updated results. The results show that the significant preference for print still exists for readers of B2B media brand issues.
In order to highlight this point more comprehensively, we are planning additional in depth data gathering in the coming year. We are going to be offering all of our 2020 clients access to the results of a case study regarding ad performance by medium. Continue reading
I don’t know where to start?
Hurricane Dorian left a path of destruction in the Bahamas. I am sure the death toll will rise as remains are found. Some residents fled the island and I don’t blame them. Some lost everything they had.
Hurricanes Weather Bureau’s reports, TV weather reports. When the last hurricane came through the Hurricane Tracking scared the crap out of people. People fled the storm, some bought gas, food supplies, water. Some could not afford to spend that money. For about a week the Weather Bureau was king on the hill. They had the attention of everyone in Florida. Now on other channels they were less accurate, drawing the cone right up the middle of the state. I noticed the European track of Hurricane Dorian was right on the money from the start (a week ahead). Why was our prediction not as accurate? Is it because of the potential danger? The first thing the different news channels’ weather reports do is draw a cone right into Florida, WHY? Russ Limbaugh said the same thing. They are sensationalizing the storm for ratings. I hope that’s not true. A hurricane cost a lot of people a lot of money. Continue reading
Friends,
This column is coming to you from a desk in Tallahassee as we begin preparing for the 2020 Legislative Session. Our summer went by very quickly but our time was well spent traveling the district and speaking with constituents from around our district and state. From Lake Panasoffkee to Sorrento, and Astor to Groveland, District 12 is a large territory but we enjoyed every minute that we spent driving through these back roads to get to each and every one of you. The message that we shared was simple, no hard left turns for our State and let’s stay on this path of prosperity and increasing opportunity for all Floridians to live the American dream. Another part of that message was of the shared success that you and your Senator had in Tallahassee during the 2019 Session. A brief look at some of these recognitions we received for our work was sent to you earlier this summer, but we have had some more since then and we would be remiss to leave them out. So, let’s take a look at our report cards. Continue reading
No one is surprised today that social media is literally everywhere. If your business is not thinking about and tackling this issue, odds are you are struggling. While we can laugh at Millennials and GenZ about their obsession with their phones and social media, I don’t think any of the rest of us are any different. I am proudly GenX but on more than one occasion just this week I have chosen where to eat based on an Instagram post (that ramen bowl at Big Hammock was almost as good at the picture!
We get our news, current events, latest happenings, restaurant updates, etc. all from social media. More than likely, your business needs to have a specific and deliberate effort on how to make this incredibly medium work for you. The CEP recently hosted a forum on social media use and one of the three big takeaways – your social media communication needs to be purposeful. Just throwing a lot of posts up will not drive opportunity. In fact, it will probably drive away your audience. At the CEP, we are constantly refining our strategy to ensure that we are being very purposeful with our posts and tweets. Continue reading
By Publisher Tom Loury
This review has several months included and some out of the area reviews.
- In August I ate Silver Springs Restaurant, had a Cowboy Burger, no bread, no Barbecue sauce with half order fries, extra crispy. The hamburger was fresh, handmade and had onion rings on top like a Cowboy Hat. It was good and the price was reasonable.
- Ate at Roadhouse grill, Villages on 441. Had steak, potatoes and veggies. Service was good, food was excellent.
- Ate at Mojo’s Ocala,Fl. It was all good, price was right. I had a Hound Dog, ft long beef hot dog wrapped in bacon, with cheese, onions and mustard. WEW! Excellent.
- Ritzy place: ate at the Strata Hotel St Pete Beach several times. The food, all Chef prepared, all good. They had a Luau with a whole roasted pig. It was delicious. My wife would not look at it or eat any of it. There were plenty of other meats. One interesting thing they were serving Icelandic Glacial water in the rooms and at the conference’s meetings with sponsors paying for it. The bars were expensive, a good reason to stay sober. It was very nicely done. The Hotel was nice, the view of the ocean was rated great.
- 5. Ate at Terry’s restaurant. Had a fish sandwich on one of their homemade rolls, baked fresh every day in house. It was all good, I will go back there soon.
- 6. Ate at Turnpike Mikes Bistro in Dunnellon Florida at the Rainbow Spring Country Club. Bottom floor looking out over the well-groomed grounds and shade trees. My gosh! The half sub is huge. I ate some of the half sub took some home. I used the leftover meat & cheese to put in my salad twice the next two days.
- 7. Had finger foods at the Sky restaurant on top of the Holiday Inn, Ocala Fl at a networking event. The Chef there always does a good job. Interesting touch the Holiday Inn serves Artesian water from Norway in a unusually tall container with a lid that has a seal. Break the seal and it’s yours. The water was good.
- 8. Had breakfast at the Ocala Business Leaders at the Elks club. They always do a good job. Also they know how to make a good hot cup of coffee.
- 9. Had lunch at Honey Bake Ham, the soup and sandwich deal. Turkey noodle soup and ham and cheese half sandwich with the works. It was good, and price was not bad at all.
- 10. Had lunch at the Florida Cracker Kitchen on my way back from St Pete. It is in Brooksville Florida. The food was good, prices moderate. They also have a Cracker store next door. It was fun walking through while waiting for a table.
- 11. I ate at Ocean 11 all you can eat buffet. I had two or three kinds of shrimp, crab, stuffed mushrooms and tea which it was difficult ordering since staff did not speak very much English. Ordered unsweetened tea with just a splash of sweet on top. After two waitresses and sending the tea back we got it right. I said unsweet tea and I put the sugar in myself.
- 12. Ate at Eaton’s Beach on Lake Weir last week. I had a catfish poorboy without the bun. It was a nice fish fillet grilled lettuce, tomato, pickles & steamed broccoli and cauliflower. It was excellent. The unique setting is on the Lake with a beach on ground level surrounded by boat docks. I saw a catchy saying on a brochure…The only thing better than the view is the food!” How True!!!
- 13 Ate at Darrell’s Restaurant East Silver Spring Blvd. One of 15 locations, wow. I would classify my lunch as a good meal, bowl of chicken noodle soup with half a ham and cheese on toast. The service was good, the coffee was good and hot, prices were moderate. Good job Darrell’s. I don’t like cold coffee and not too strong. There is an art to making good coffee. Do not ask someone who doesn’t drink coffee every day to make coffee.
If you had a good restaurant experience anywhere in Florida, email me at: tloury@att.net. Tell me what restaurant. What food did you have? How was it? How was it priced? How was the service?
(Ocala, FL) A sign was unveiled this week that has been erected on Ocala’s downtown square. The sign commemorates and recognizes a twinning agreement with Ocala’s sister town located in Newbridge, Ireland. The official agreement linking the two communities was finalized ten years ago and was signed by the mayors of both towns. “The concept of twinning among towns helps promote the sharing of culture, and has resulted in lasting bonds of friendship” states Charles Eades, chairperson of the Ocala Twinning Committee.
Attending the ceremony were officials from the City of Ocala, Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn, a delegation visiting from Newbridge, and Ocala Twinning committee members. The sign includes information about the twinning, a display of the American and Irish flags, a map pinpointing the location of Newbridge, and the fact that Ireland is only 4,038 miles away.
In the photo, former mayor of Newbridge Murty Aspell says a few words to a group gathered during the unveiling ceremony.
TomL Publishing LLC Wins Awards! The awards event is put on by Florida Media Association covering all of Florida. TomL Publishing has a Multi-Media Platform offering print newspapers and with internet exposure. The TomL Publishing company entered a statewide contest for newspapers in different categories. Graphics Artist Chris Boody of Website Design Ocala / Website Graphic Design Florida, took first place for Best Digital Ad Design. Tom Loury, Publisher won First Place Best Editorial and several other awards.
TomL says we are lucky to have won in the field of newspapers that were competing. We appreciate them for considering us. We are lucky to have Chris Boody doing our ad designing and composing our papers. Chris has also set up tomlpublishing.com website. Thank You Chris Boody for all you do!
Pictured is Diane Leaf speaking in front of the Ocala Business Leaders about Champions for Champions. They are working toward making life better for children and adults by helping them overcome adversity. They are self-funded meaning they raise money through fund raising. They pay for building rental and program to enhance their participation skills.
The purpose for Champions for Champions Inc. is to enrich the lives of special needs individuals and their family in Marion county and surrounding areas of Central Florida. They facilitate in providing recreation, educational, athletic, life skills and musical activities. For questions on how you can help call 352-462-0380 or 352-800-6733.
Ocala Water Resources Conservation Coordinator Rachel Slocumb explained the process of the water resources in Ocala. Slocumb showed how toilet tissue verse non toilet tissue breaks down. It was amazing to see. If you ask you can get a brochure that tells you what not to flush down the toilet. The list is just common sense. Remember the toilet is not a garbage can. Wipe grease out of pans and put in the trash bag for garbage pickup.
Some of the extra work processing waste water is what some people are flushing down the toilet or washing down the drain like grease. It will clog your drains and will clog the city’s drains. Slocumb explained some of the processes they use to break the grease buildup from the walls of the pipes. After filtering, the human waste is dried, treated and taken to a designated area near Brooksville.
It was a very educational talk! Thank you Rachel Slocumb!
