WEHOville was founded in 2012 by Henry Scott. Henry was a former New York Times executive who brought his street smarts and savvy knowledge of journalism to the heart of West Hollywood. Hank’s investigative reporting uncovered the facts and highlighted issue after issue central to West Hollywood life. His creation, “WEHOville,” opened the door for all of us to engage with one another on the happenings of the day in real-time.
Quantcast ratings for WEHOville soared and today WEHOville remains one of the top hyper-local online news sources in the nation.
At the end of October, WEHOville and its sister properties, “GayLifeLA.com” “SoCalPrideGuide” and “West Hollywood Magazine” were sold to a media company based in Las Vegas. New owners, Scott and Shane, had a vision to drive traffic and among other initiatives create an LGBTQ business directory and that is still in the works. County articles started to take over these pages instead of local news and it bothered me.
Two weeks ago in the Carney’s parking lot something ticked me off and I had to contact them. An email to the owners, “WEHOville is a community treasure” and offered to “make them whole” and purchase WEHOville and its assets. Today, Boystown Media Inc., a newly formed West Hollywood corporation located at 8853 Santa Monica Blvd., is the new owner and home of WEHOville.
WEHOville is being re-imagined for the future. We have engaged two West Hollywood residents for a redesign. Our topics will highlight everything that makes West Hollywood special. Our Sunday Op-Ed series will feature hard to get interviews and perspectives. This Sunday, April 4, we debut the series with John Heilman looking back on his 36 years of building the great city of West Hollywood.
Thursdays will feature educational writings by community leaders on topics central to “living better” and “appreciating our journey,” beginning on Thursday, April 8 with Anthony Vulin, a West Hollywood resident, owner of the Collective Agency and President of the Greater LA Association of Realtors with his column “Moving from Renting to Home Ownership.”
In our Up Close and Personal column we will show off small local success stories such as Bikes and Hikes. You will meet founder Danny Roman and his 10-month old son, Ante, and hear about Danny’s social commitment to a greener city and pollenating our planet.
Nightlife, Restaurants and Hotels will become new categories inside the WEHOville magazine and we will partner with the Chamber of Commerce to offer support for any new business that comes to West Hollywood. You will be invited to the Grand Opening! Let’s give our small business a shot to get known and build our community together.
Politics is a tough sport and in the last election both union-backed candidates won a seat on the City Council. The citywide election means big bucks and the machines take over. Our new commissioner column will give voice to the next generation of city council candidates. I’m very interested in following up on the term-limits initiative that I founded almost 10 years ago. We need independent voices that are not in the pockets of developers or unions. There’s more work to do to make the dream of a community centric City Council a reality and I’m not giving up.
The new WEHOville will partner with our local non-profits to make sure our community is aware of all the social services this city provides. West Hollywood has tremendous resources for seniors and those with disabilities and we will support their mission without prejudice to money. We have a job to do and that is to lift our community up.
We will continue with breaking news, insights and investigative journalism and are actively seeking free-lance writers to get on top of the stories of the day.
‘Hate speak’ is no longer accepted inside the WEHOville comment section. One former City Hall employee who lives in Palm Springs on his pension harasses residents on this blog consistently. This is not acceptable. Your comments need to be on the topic. If you do not have something positive to say, then don’t waste your time posting. We don’t talk at people or down to people if we are all working together. Stay on the topic.
This year was an incredibly tough year for our community. We lost so many long-term residents and small businesses. Our legacy gay bars which had created the fabric of our history and community such as Gold Coast, Rage, and more recently Flaming Saddles, have closed for good. Big new money and investments will reshape the West Hollywood of tomorrow. Through WEHOville you can take journey from the Planning Commission to the Grand Opening. Our job is to promote the great city of West Hollywood and be an ambassador to its residents and businesses that make up our community. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
XO,
Larry
