This week we celebrated Labor Day, the federal holiday meant to mark what the United States Department of Labor calls “the social and economic achievements of American workers.”
So it seems fitting that today we’re launching a feature that I think will help reinvigorate our Business page by showcasing residents who are making a living in an interesting way, or people who’ve reinvented their careers because they could no longer ignore the voice in the back of their heads telling them to start over, take a risk, chase a dream or set out on their own.
These are stories of bravery, persistence, resilience, and vision.
I’m a risk-averse journalist who doesn’t have an entrepreneurial bone in his body. I find these stories inspirational. I think many of you will, too.
Tasked with telling them each week is business columnist Lisa DeAngelis and I’m confident that she’ll bring a lively and engaging spirit to the Business page.
Full disclosure: We’d originally planned this as a weekly local business profile, formatted like a traditional news story. But when Lisa turned in her first piece a few weeks ago, we were struck by her breezy, accessible style, her columnist instincts and her deft use of humor, something that’s not at all common on business pages but could be a breath of fresh air on ours. We pivoted. The result is “It’s a Living with Lisa DeAngelis.”
Here’s the thing. Lisa can’t do this all by herself. Each week’s column will close with an invitation to pitch us potential businesses to feature. We’re hoping to hear from people with fascinating stories to tell, ideas that’ll make us say “I didn’t know you could make a living doing that,” or career paths that follow something other than a straight line.
If this sounds like you or someone you know, reach out to us at herald@buckscountyherald.com and make the subject line “It’s a Living with Lisa.” Maybe that’ll be the story that anchors our Business page in an upcoming edition of the Bucks County Herald.
I’ll probably never “chuck it all and become an innkeeper” like the folks Lisa features today at The Inn at Fox Briar Farm in Buckingham (read that one on Page C7), but I think telling their story and others like it is part of what being a community newspaper is all about.
John Anastasi is Editor-in-Chief of the Bucks County Herald and can be reached at janastasi@buckscountyherald.com.
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