Major League Website(s) Bulk Copy Samples

Press Releases

(Written for an independent reggae artist, and for a local event, both of which I served as independent media/legal representative)

PRESS RELEASE 1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE— January 2014

Jacksonville Beach, Florida— Rapper Dez Nado releases his much anticipated official “No Hands: I.R.I.E.” mixtape album the day after Christmas online, following the release of the music video for his widely buzzing latest single “KindaDed”, which was released on iTunes and Amazon.com in September 2013. Riding the momentum from his still buzzing single “DoSumn” (released Spring 2013), which features a hook from iconic rapper/producer Kanye West and is arguably Dez’s biggest track to date, “I.R.I.E.”  is a reggae crossover album and is Dez’s first release outside of the hip hop/rap genre.

Tapping into his Caribbean roots, Dez says I.R.I.E. was influenced by his love for reggae music, and is a continuation of the vibe of his first reggae single “Kindaded”, which is a track that features production from Rhythm and MgeeZy, who produced fellow Duval rapper and Young Money/Cash Money recording artist T-Rone’s hit “Hello Love” which appeared briefly on BET’s video countdown show 106^th & Park. The album features collaboration remixes with some reggae heavyweights like Gyptian, Chistopher Martin, Elephant Man, Lionheart, and J-Boog, as well as rare mash-ups with Rihanna, Collie Budds, and fellow Duval artists Lankdizzim and Jasmine Rhey.

The album also features “So Fine” (featuring Elephant Man and Lionheart) and “KindaDed” as singles. The music video for “KindaDed” was filmed on location at Jacksonville Beach and directed by Dez and St. Augustine-based videographer Rick Frazier, who can be heard in the beginning of “I.R.I.E.”. The video features a Weekend at Bernie’s 2 themed storyline that Dez says he came up with; “The video is like a mini movie…it’s definitely the best video I’ve done”. According to Dez, up next is a remix to “KindaDed” that will feature some Duval/Florida legends, and an “I.R.I.E.” College Tour in the Spring. Streaming/Download/Purchase (iTunes/Amazon) links for “KindaDed” and “I.R.I.E.” are listed below.

For more information on Dez Nado and his latest single/mixtape, please visit:

www.whoisdeznado.com 

For media inquiries, please contact publicist JSPR at vipsquadent@gmail.com

PRESS RELEASE 2

Duval SpringFest Returns after 8-year Hiatus; 2014 Lineup Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE— April 2014

Orange Park, Florida— North Florida-based entertainment group VIPSquad Entertainment announced earlier this week that it would be bringing back “SpringFest”, the region’s original independent rap/hip hop festival, after an 8 year hiatus. The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 3^rd, with the artist showcase scheduled to start at 9pm and run til midnight.

DUVAL SpringFest 2014, which will mirror the showcase style of the inaugural event held in March of 2006 at the University of North Florida (Jacksonville), will be held at Twist Bar & Lounge located at the Astoria Hotel (150 Park Ave, Orange Park, FL), a venue that’s only about a 10-15 minute drive from the original location. The event will be hosted by former local radio personality Chanel “The Voice of Duval” along with DJ King Ron, who DJ’d the original event in 2006. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office will be securing and enforcing a 21 & Up atmosphere at this year’s festival, as a full service bar and will be serving both beverages and food to paying attendees.

Featured artists include Lionheart, a local reggae DJ and singer, Jane Doe, a female MC whose sounds are regularly heard on Jacksonville’s POWER 106.1 FM radio station, and Rap/Rock crossover artist Rockstar Raw who teams with JLee and Joe to form the Rapcore/Rock/Alternative trio Askmeificare. Also on the lineup are some of VIPSquad Entertainment’s own; John Cruiz, Bangem, and also Dez Nado, a Reggae/Rap crossover artist who is behind the creation and coordination of the SpringFest series.

“I wanted to give us all a platform,” says Dez about the idea behind SpringFest, “where we would all be able to build our own brands, and promote the same event so that everybody could benefit in the end, rather than just benefitting the promoter who might put a million artists on a lineup just to make a buck and not even care about the music.” Notable Jacksonville rappers Mr. Whitty, Choz, Blak$o, Urban Champ, T.C.G., CHIEFGr8R, Kraiz Mikaze, and iHustla round out the lineup for this year’s festival.

The 2014 edition of SpringFest is sponsored in part by Clique Vodka, who will provide free samples at the event, and is presented in collaboration with Club Juicee, So Fluffy Entertainment, and Tweekland. Jacksonville’s first and only televised reality TV show, which airs in May of 2014 on BounceTv/CW17, “Life & Grind: Duval”, will be filming live at the event this year as well.

Tickets go on sale online for $8 at www.duvalspringfest2014.eventbrite.com April 16^th at 6pm, and are available for cash orders at $10 starting Friday April 18^th. To purchase via cash, contact VIPSquad Entertainment at vipsquadent@gmail.com, or www.facebook.com/VIPSquadEnt

To hear music from this year’s performing artists, visit the event page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/230554950474588/ and view the event info for each artist’s individual link.

Radio Sample 1: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lifegrindradio/2015/02/07/life-grind-radio-black-history-show-v

Radio Sample 2: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lifegrindradio/2015/01/31/life-grind-radio-iv-super-bowl-xlix-show-2015

Published Sports League Copy

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Another Newspaper in a Downward Spiral

It appears that one of the few remaining major newspaper companies that still circulate news in the physical print form is in a downward spiral after a string of firings and resignations, according to The New York Times. One such resignation, that of executive editor John Solomon a couple of weeks ago, has had much more of an impact and is much more telling of the state of The Washington Times today.

Many blame the downturn on Rev. Sun Myung Moon, owner of the company that oversees The Washington Times. In October of this year, Mr. Moon stepped down and turned control over to his four children who began fighting amongst themselves for power. The article states that the feuding was apparent, and caused many to question the company's future after employees began to resign or be fired.

On the positive side, the newspaper did make clear its intentions on transitioning to digital. The article noted that though The Washington Times only circulated about 67,000 printed copies, its website received nearly 2 million "unique visitors" per month, according to Nielson Online.

It's pretty clear that the company needs to address the leadership positions in order to improve their executive structure, no company can succeed without that. After Mr. Moon gets the Times back on its feet, I think it's only a matter of time before the company plays to its digital audience and stops its print circulation to operate fully online.

More Power to the People (Just in Case You Thought YouTube Was Declining)

Yesterday, a New York Times article announced that web video giant YouTube had signed up NPR, Politico, The Huffington Post, and The San Francisco Chronicle for "YouTube Direct", which is a program that uses a new method to manage video submissions from readers.

The article stated that the feature is a new way for users to upload videos and clips directly to news organizations for them to review and possibly highlight on their national broadcasts/publications. According to the web site's head of news and politics, YouTube is trying to "connect media organizations with citizen reporters," which isn't the first time a web site has attempted this, but is the first time a web site as big as YouTube has taken steps to promote amateur/citizen journalism and independent reporting.

The most recent nationally publicized events are the Elections that took place in Iran a few months ago and the protests that surrounded them. The world most likely would not have known what was really going on if it had not been for those who posted videos to YouTube and the news organizations who broadcasted the amateur clips.

I think this is another step in the right direction; it will allow independent journalism to flourish, it will give more power to the average citizen, and it will broaden the perspectives of world events. Certain companies might not like it because it may give the people more power but I think those companies should look at it as an opportunity to work with the very same people they are trying to get to watch their broadcasts.

Too Many Tweeters Tweeting on Twitter

With Twitter having become one of the most popular social networking tools in the world, one has to wonder how many tweeters and tweets are too many? A New York Times article recently reported that the number of tweets per day exploded from 2.4 million to 26 million in a span of just nine months, according to a University of Iowa researcher.

The article explained that the growing number of tweets wasn't a problem to individual users, but had become a problem for corporate giants who invested money in being able to search users' tweets to tap into "the pulse of the world" (Microsoft, Google, etc.). Methods that used to work when using text searching (as used with search engines) have become useless because there is basically too much information out there in the world of twitter to pinpoint the info desired and searches end up with search overloads (i.e. the bing commercials).

Twitter's answer to the problem is geolocation, which basically uses global positioning in cell phones to "include a precise location" with each tweet. This allows those searching through tweets to filter them by location. The article states that this feature could be available in the next few weeks.

I think geolocation could be a great tool, not just for tweets but for the internet in general and all social networking as well. It would make it relative, kind of like going from national news to local news with one click. But, I think other problems will arise in the future with twitter, especially with all of the new tweeters joining the network. With geolocation and whatever other improvements occur in the near future, I think Twitter's most popular days have yet to be seen.

Another Multimillion Dollar Company Makes a Profit in the Recession

It's common to hear about the greed of companies leading to them make profit these days, despite the recession. It's also common to hear about companies having to cut jobs and cut back on expenses just to minimize their losses. But, there is at least one company that by scaling down has actually acheived its short-term goal of turning the recession into a positive, all while ethically following the rules.

According to a New York Times article, Viacom (the company that owns MTV and Paramount Pictures) reported a rise in profits for the third quarter, but it was "a performance acheived through cutting costs and shredding workers."

Though Viacom's two main sources of revenue declined (advertising and feature films), its net earnings for the quarter were still over $60 million more than the third quarter of 2008. The main drivers were the success of the video game "The Beatles: Rock Band", and movies "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", "G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra" and "Paranormal Activity". The increased profitability is attributed to the costs cut and the decreased amount of movie releases for the year.

I think Viacom was one of the few companies that did it right. America was living beyond its means after the surplus in 2000 turned into a multi-trillion dollar deficit by 2008. It was overdue for the country to scale down everything and Viacom was the perfect example of how companies should deal with the recession; they lost revenue but increased profitability, cut jobs but rose in the stock market, and made fewer movies but the only thing that did was filter out the lower quality movies, which led to more money made per release.

CNN Slips to Last Place During Prime-Time

This New York Times article reported today that the network most of us have become more familiar with over the past year-and-a-half has fallen to an all-time low as far as prime-time cable news ratings go.

The article stated that in its 30 years of existence, CNN has never received primetime ratings this low; three of its four prime time (7pm to 11pm) shows finished last in total viewers, causing CNN to finish last as a network behind Fox News, MSNBC, and HLN for the third month in the last year.

Adding insult to injury, HLN is a sister network of CNN that even has some of CNN's former TV show hosts who transferred over, meaning CNN is losing to a network it helped create and establish.

The article goes on to make a good point pertaining to the reason CNN is slipping. The recent conflict between the White House/MSNBC and Fox News has increased the popularity of the news networks involved. Because CNN is basically a neutral network, it suffers by losing the interest of viewers.

I guess that even though it is news, MSNBC and Fox News are more opinion-based, which means they are more a form of entertainment than CNN. This proves that in TV, just like in music, print, or any form of media, controversy increases sales (or in this case, viewers).

Digital Media Revolution, Continued

We've all heard of how digital is taking over as the dominant form of media, replacing analog. From mp3's replacing CD's and tapes to online movies, TV, and blogs replacing traditional film, TV, and print, the digital revolution isn't exactly new to this generation.

But, just when you thought you'd heard it all, enter the e-book. Short for electronic book, the e-book is re-introducing leisure reading to all generations. According to this article, people like the man featured in the story are reading more than ever thanks to the newest e-book device called the 'Kindle'. The device basically acts as a digital book that is as portable as a cell phone, but physically bigger to accomodate readers.

The article also points out that much like the music and film industries, the publishing industry has also been going through a decline in sales. With the advent of the e-book the industry may have to do just as other industries are doing; adapt, and find ways to turn a decline back around into a rise of profits.