Dear Readers, 

My name is George Harvey and I am a sports reporter for the Penobscot Bay Pilot. I write to you all as the hours wind down in 2014 and as the 2014 calendar comes down and is replaced by my 2015 calendar. 

As a small, primarily online, with two magazines out, resource, we don’t have the luxuries that other news organizations have. We’re smaller in just about every way, shape and form. So, what does that mean? It means we are still growing. 

We need your help to help us grow. 

How you can help us grow? Well, aside from sharing our stories on your Facebook pages and telling all your friends about us, you can send us everything you know about what’s happening in the Midcoast sports world. 

There are so many games going on at not just the varsity level, but also the middle school, freshman and junior varsity level. Oh, and of course we can’t forget about the elementary children playing in town recreation leagues! Unfortunately, it looks like we only care about the varsity level sports, but believe me, we don’t. I have tried making contact with numerous coaches and athletic directors across the Midcoast region and have not had much success. 

Even if you only send a final score, it is better than nothing. So fans, students, teachers, if you know a final score, please send it to us. And coaches and athletic directors, please send us some stats to go along with the final scores, your athletes deserve the recognition for their hard work. 

And readers, please feel free to always reach out to us with any knowledge you have about what’s happening out there. Chances are we will do a little research and decide to take that two sentence tip and make it into a story. Or, maybe I’ll read that one sentence email and decide to make it a story immediately. 

As one who handles the majority of the day-to-day operations of the sports department, it is disheartening when I have to file a post that is lacking anything good because I’m just stuck with 10 final scores and no clue if the game was close until the final minutes when someone went on a hot three-point scoring streak or if that one touchdown victory was made on a hail-mary pass or a game was won on a walk-off home run. 

We’re not the traditional media resources everybody is used to. We are game changers. We are not like everybody else, hence why we have started our own place where Midcoast residents can get their news. So that tip that you don’t think will fit the status quo with the “bigger” news organizations, guess what, it probably fits right into my our agenda.

I can’t say it enough — all of us at the Pilot are striving for one thing, and that is to give the readers what they want. I’ll write a sports story on just about any topic — baseball, tennis, bowling, wrestling, fishing, cross country, etc. — as long as I believe a few readers will read it, even if it’s your own family members. 

And, I’ll be honest, I can’t fit the expectations the “bigger” news organizations have of their reporters. I’ve tried it and I prefer this much better. I can deliver the readers exactly what they want and when they want it. Almost every night, it’ll be into the pretty late hours of the day, and I’m still hanging around with my laptop and headphones working on something I hope my readers enjoy. So while many people are catching some sleep, I’m awake, grinding, and making sure that when people wake up and check the Pilot in the morning, they are reading exactly what they were hoping to read about. 

We can’t do this without you, and need your assistance. This is me reaching out to you, finding out exactly what you want. Name one other news organization that will do that? Last time I checked, others wrote what they wanted to write, but what fun is that? If I want to do that, I can go start some blog that 10 people will read. This is about starting a news dynasty, a place where the people can tell their stories. 

At the Penobscot Bay Pilot, we don’t know the phrase “traditional news media” because we are anything but traditional.

In 2015, we’re going to be bigger than ever and it is going to be all thanks to you guys, our readers. 

So, readers, let us ring in 2015 by pledging to email sports@penbaypilot.com at least once a week with either a final score, game stats or a story tip. And, while you are sending me your weekly email, let me know what you want to read. Do you want more sailing stories? I’ll call my sailing sources. Want a feature story on a local sports figure doing some good deeds for the community? I’ll reach out to them and see when they can sit down for an interview. 

Oh, and Happy New Year. 

Yours, 
George Harvey
Penobscot Bay Pilot Sports Reporter 

Reach George Harvey and the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.