San Marcos is a remarkable place with a remarkable future. I’ve known that for years. It was one of the reasons I chose to dedicate myself, personally and professionally to this unique part of Texas, and the world. I have been committed to the future of San Marcos since 1996 when I founded a business here to help develop the potential of this wonderful community. Today, I’m more convinced than ever that my original judgment about this place, and my subsequent investment in the life of this community are among the best decisions of my life. This place has become home and more importantly, you have become neighbors.
One of the great needs in any community is the ability to easily share information and ideas with each other in a timely way, to the end that we are all better informed and able to have the information we need to make the decisions that affect every aspect of our lives. Without that ability we all become susceptible to rumors, misinformation and marginalization as our community becomes victimized instead of informed. Traditionally this role has been filled by locally owned and operated newspapers, but in today’s world that rarely happens. However, simply because the outmoded institutions of the past no longer serve us, does not mean we are not left without resources. In this electronic age we become beneficiaries of the means we need to accomplish our goal of being informed and generating a dialogue among ourselves about local issues by a locally owned and operated source.
Over a year ago I began investing in the creation of such a medium for the Greater San Marcos area. Newstreamz was created for the sole purpose of having a locally owned source of local news about local issues available for all of us.
By SCOTT GREGSON
Gregson Investments
What a remarkably misleading image you have created, Scott? Do you really think the public will buy it? And not see the blatantly obvious conflict of interest? Local developer owes/operates local newspaper…to influence economic development for personal gain. $CHA-CHING$!
I know this won’t hold much weight with you since I too am involved in this venture, but let me weigh in on this as well.
This “conflict of interest” you refer to is silly. You are saying that because Scott wants his community to do well, it is a conflict? Perhaps he should be building something that hurts the community? Would that satisfy your smell test?
You have also overstated his involvement in Newstreamz. You act as though he uses it as his personal podium to promote only things that help his interests. Nothing could be further from the truth. Scott has never directed content of the site any more than to give a heads up when an important event is happening or the like. In fact, if you want to talk with Scott, the Newstreamz office is the least likely spot to find him.
As the Chief Operating Officer and co-owner of Newstreamz, I take issue with anyone making baseless accusations about my business and/or business partner. Perhaps if you didn’t hide behind anonymity, you wouldn’t be so mean-spirited. You sound like someone with a pre-existing axe to grind.
I cannot count the number of times I have heard people exclaim how happy they are to have this sort of coverage of, by, and for the people of San Marcos.
I take it back – Scott did list a used car in the classified ads for FREE… that could be construed as a conflict of interest if he were getting a discount. Then again ALL the classifieds ads are free. 🙂
Mean-spirited? Not in the slightest sense. Your skin will have to toughen up if you and “your business” are to last much longer. My comment is typical of local blogs. That’s all newstreamz is, right? A few poorly written (or foolishly plagiarized) articles hidden amongst a glorified blog.
I was unaware that you are the “co-owner” as well. Shocking that your inflated ego can live without the distinction attached to your equally inflated title of “Chief Operations Officer”.
Keep up the good work, ower.
I smell a rat. Is this a fake fight to get me to check the site more often?
Unfortunately, it is difficult to know how many people are making these sorts of claims, because of the anonymity afforded by various sites.
Of course, having seen some of the attacks leveled against various posters, I can’t say that I blame anyone for not using their real names.
There is one not so anonymous voice, who went on to join another site after leaving this one, who has made some very serious accusations. Specifically, he wrote that Scott is
“a real estate developer who it seems clear to me brazenly uses what he touts as an objective news source to pressure elected officials to commit taxpayer dollars and rewrite policy in a way he hopes will make him rich. He made it clear when I worked there briefly that he expected unfavorable articles about certain members of the city council and about the county commissioners who rejected buying property from him in a deal worth tens of millions of dollars.”
Perhaps this brief editorial was meant as a rebuttal. I don’t know. If that was the intention, it did not really clear anything up.
Overall, I think the site looks pretty good, although not quite the source of news unavailable elsewhere, that I recall it being promoted as in the beginning.
I’m very happy to see coverage for things like Thunderhill and discussions about the state of our schools. It would be nice to see more coverage of issues like drunk driving and the Sagewood problem – how many houses have drunks crashed into in recent months? Did you know some punk from Sagewood came into our neighborhood recently and tried to intimidate residents who had called in a loud party complaint?
I suppose that everyone has their own pet issues that they wish were getting more attention.
I would like to know the details of Brad’s accusations and Scott’s response to those accusations, though.
I am one of those who appreciates this type of news, feedback, and free classified ads, too! I can only imagine the obstacles overcome and potential yet to be achieved by the Newstreamz owners, employees, readers, sponsors, and contributors (which includes me.) So, thank you, Scott, and everyone else committed to making San Marcos a more functional, better place to live. It’s all about informing and building community. I’d like to see birth, wedding, and obituary sections. I’m always gad to hear about a birth or wedding, and while I never gloat over someone’s death, I think the world is better off sometimes without their constant negativity.
Ted,
Thanks for the info. As far as you pet issues… we are still a small staff and always looking to include underreported aspects of San Marcos life.
If you want to come by and talk, I’d be happy to find out more about your issues and see what kind of coverage we can give them.
Thanks
This is an excellent website and a much needed portal to represent our community. We very much appreciate the work that’s been done and the effort of the Newstreamz ownership and staff. Thank you for finally giving this community a voice!
What ever people think of the owner’s motives at least they have the sense of fairness to publish negative comments directed at them personally. I enjoy the articles and commentaries. Particularly the immediate response to events that are possible due to the electronic media. Pleasing all of the people all of the time is difficult. I see that many people post comments so some of the people must be pleased some of the time. That is a worthy goal.