Still working on the foundation

Phil Cobb

The fourth annual Cobb Publishing Co. Christmas party was held Wednesaday night at the Maryville Country Club.

It was almost four years ago that Rita Piveral, Twyla Martin, Lana Cobb, and I left GateHouse Media to start Cobb Publishing and our first publication, The Post.

It has been a little more than two years since we acquired the Maryville Daily Forum from the aforementioned evil empire of corporate newspapers.

But this wasn’t necessarily an anniversary party.

It is the Christmas season, and as noted above, these types of get-togethers where owners and employees tend to gather, eat too much, embarrass themselves a little, and hopefully laugh out loud an appropriate amount, are often referred to as “Christmas” parties.

But this wasn’t really a “Christmas” party.

At least not in my mind.

This was an employee appreciation event.

I will never be able to comprehend the level of trust that was shown to me in March of 2012 by Rita, Twyla, and my mom when they followed me out the same door that we now enter every day when we come in to work.

An equal amount of support was shown by my wife, Chaundee.

What would you do if your spouse came home and said, “Hey, you know that thing I’ve been doing for 12 years to support our family … yeah … well, I’m not going to do that anymore.

“Instead, I’m going to try something that might not work.”

She never blinked an eye.

What we did was, to my knowledge, unprecedented.

We had no guarantee what we were about to do would work.

It absolutely would not have worked without some key contributions at key times by some key people.

I know I speak for all of us when I say we will never forget the overwhelming and immediate rush of support we received from our customers and the community.

There are those like Jim Davis and Jim Fall who have given of themselves in immeasurable quantities to ensure that what we’re doing here is successful.

They were there last night — and appropriately so.

There are many others, mostly advertisers and readers, who have contributed in a wide variety of ways.

There are other names I would like to mention, but I will refrain, so as not to cause discomfort for them in any way.

Kaity Holtman joined our team in March of 2013.

We weren’t looking to hire anyone.

At the time, we couldn’t afford to hire anyone.

But as Chaundee so wisely pointed out to me as I was wringing my hands over the decision, “You can’t afford to not hire her.”

Forty-three years old at the time, I was the youngest of our employees.

We knew we needed someone who could better connect us with the rapidly changing trends, emerging technologies, and a new generation of consumers that none of us understood.

Looking back, I can’t believe I ever hesitated.

Kaity has become a key part of the foundation of this company.

And it’s a foundation still under construction.

With the addition of the Daily Forum came Tony Brown.

I love Tony.

Tony is a complicated guy, but I love Tony — I appreciate Tony.

To some extent, I think I understand Tony.

I get a lot of the credit for the current state of the Daily Forum, as does Jim Fall.

But let me make one thing perfectly clear — the Daily Forum, as we know it, would not exist today if it weren’t for Tony Brown.

He’s a great writer, but more importantly, he’s a great reporter.

We have struggled to fill in around him.

For the short amount of time we’ve been doing this, we’ve had too many come and go.

On the news side: Jason Lawrence, Steve Hartman, Kevin Birdsell, Elizabeth Golden, Katy Barth, and Chris Roush.

In advertising: Cameron Howard and Audrey Wheeler.

In composition: Gary Darling.

In distribution: Joe Hartman and Everett Straw.

All made significant contributions.

All have moved on for one reason or another.

All are missed.

Bottom line: this business is really hard, especially on the news side.

And it is difficult to find the right fit.

In addition to those already mentioned, here’s who we currently have on staff:

Dalton Vitt, Alanna Wolf-Armstrong, Jennifer Ditlevson-Haglund, Jerry Lutz, Kelsey Piveral, Tyler Piveral, and Matthew Whittington. Soon, Jaque Runyon will join us in the design department.

I fully expect several of these people to eventually move on to bigger and better things.

And I’m okay with that.

But what I really want to know is, who will be next to become a permanent piece of the foundation?

I hope we find out soon.

Everyone knows you have to have a solid foundation to build upon.

I’m ready to start building.