Pick Your Flower, Not Your Poison

Every month, we provide the Lake Nona community a newspaper full of content to appeal to the masses to the best of our abilities. We focus on the positive in a world that seems to be drowning in the negative. We highlight our wonderful community that’s been making a name for itself, and we all have one thing in common … we get to call it home. We want every member of our neighborhood to be able to pick up a copy of Nonahood News and be interested – whether in a section of the paper or a specific article running that month. On a daily basis, I determine which stories will run in our paper, online, on social media, in a video, or on In the Nona.

Every quarter, we come together to revise content. We ask for your feedback to help us determine which content we move forward with and which we give a facelift or get rid of completely. Working on increasing our engagement levels is a constant battle. Our paper distributes to more than 20,000 homes every month – and that number continues to grow monthly as Lake Nona continues to grow. It’s a pretty massive challenge to meet the interests of every individual who picks up our paper, but we want nothing more than to take that challenge head-on and make it one of our biggest feats. With that said, we can’t do that if we don’t hear from you … all of you. Each opinion is as valuable to us as the next.

When we reach out to the public for feedback, we want to hear the truth – good or bad. That’s all we can ask for. We can only continue to provide content for you as our readers if we know what you want to read about. Think of picking which articles will stay in the paper as picking flowers … what I (or the rest of the Nonahood News team) may like might not be something you want to see in your vase or read about in your paper. Whereas the paper might not be filled with content that each person enjoys 100%, that’s a goal we can strive for.

There’s A LOT that goes on behind the scenes at Nonahood News that the average community member isn’t aware of. You might see us attending/hosting events or conducting interviews and you retrieve the newspaper from your mailbox every month, but you might not have realized that this paper is 100% written by our community members, your community members – comprised of your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers, and maybe even your family. At least once a day, I think about how we could all use a clone or two of ourselves to keep up with all the happenings in Lake Nona, and we’ve come to realize that our field requires us to be “on call” at all times. But that’s okay … we do it for you and we love what we do.

We bring content to life through storytelling and that story is y(our) story. Let it be known that this community newspaper known as Nonahood News is filled with y(our) stories, y(our) visions, and it’s ultimately Y(OUR) paper. So, when we announce our content revision and want to hear from you, don’t hesitate to reach out. Honestly, you can always send us a message and expect a response. We are here for you. So, pick your article(s) and share it with us, just like you would your favorite flower. It’s pretty safe to say that we’re growing just as much as a blossoming flower that’s looked after and watered daily. We are blooming and so is Lake Nona. So, tag us in your photos around town, message us (even if it’s just to say “hi”), stop us when you see us around town and talk to us. Nonahood News is about you, just as much as it’s about our community.

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” – Georgia O’Keeffe

Nicole LaBosco, Director of Content: nicole@nona.media

Elaine Vail, Editor-in-Chief: elaine@nona.media