By: Megan Way | Photos by Lawrence Oravetz
Su Phelps, Owner/Publisher of Veterans Reporter News (VRN) came to the Solera Veterans and First Responders Club as a guest speaker for their monthly meeting. The Solera Club has been featured in Veterans Reporter News numerous times. Solera Veterans and First Responders Club President Howard Spanier says, “Our Club has been honored to be featured in the Veterans Reporter News numerous times, especially in the Oct. 2017 and the Oct. 2018 issues, when you had coverage of our Clubs 9/11 Patriots Day Ceremony.”
Su Phelps talks about VRN’s history and how she bought it and created it into the paper it is today with her values. Six years ago, she didn’t own VRN, she says, “If you told me 6 years ago that I would be a newspaper owner, publisher and reporter I would have laughed and told you that you were crazy! All I knew about VRN at the time was that one of the clients who came to my company recycling center.”
That client, Chuck Baker, on November 2012 told Phelps he wanted to shut down the paper. “I asked him why he didn’t sell it and he told me he had just come from a lunch with a person who was going to buy the paper from him had insulted him so bad he’d rather close the paper.” Veterans Reporter News would’ve stopped existing right after that, if she didn’t open her mouth.
“I don’t know why but my mouth opened up saying, ‘Why don’t you sell to me?’. I knew English was my second language, but I did it. He said ‘Okay, what’s your price?’ “
“After I took over this paper, I realized it should serve the community the way I see it. So I opened the paper to the whole community and I made it a mirror for the community; Soldiers, the military, and the citizens they all really, really truly have the heart for patriotism. It’s my job to make sure those kinds of thoughts and actions are promoted. And I make sure I tell the truth and I make sure I’m neutral. I promote ‘patriotism’; VRN is the stage for everybody, the mirror for everybody; We immortalize all the veteran events we report.”
To hear Su’s whole speech, go to https://www.veteransreporternews.com/
