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All Ages of Geek and Renna Media
This just in! All Ages of Geek has some amazing news to share with you! We recently partnered up with Renna Media, a New Jersey-based business that publishes newspapers in and around Union and Somerset county. Renna Media was founded by Joe and Tina Renna in 1984! All Ages of Geek will work hand and hand with the Renna Media’s team to help local businesses with advertising through video, design, and audio content. Not only will we be helping with behind the scenes work, such as covering live events, we will also be producing geek-related content to help modernize geek culture in small towns!
All Ages of Geek interviewed Joe Renna from Renna Media to tell you more about this exciting industry!
1. How did you start Renna Media?
I started my business in 1984, a graphic design studio that grew into a full-service advertising and marketing agency. I knew what I wanted to be from a very young age. I was always interested in creating, art, photography, film etc. For some reason, the advertising industry fascinated me. I worked for a big graphic production company right out of high school. When I graduated college I bought a typesetter and started my business working out of my bedroom. I figured, if it didn’t work out. I’ll get a job. The studio was like a playground with in-house, darkroom, video production, drawing boards, and, my first Mac. It’s been thirty-five years of doing what I love.
2. What made you start Renna Media?
Tina and I were married in 1989 and worked together to grow the business. During the advent of the internet, many local community newspapers were closing down, losing their classified advertisers to websites like eBay and craigslist. I started publishing newspapers in 1998 to fill voids in underserved communities. I had a stable of willing advertisers to support the effort. Periodically we started new publications in different towns and now, since 2018, publish 21 community newspapers. We sold the agency and started Renna Media operating out of a home office. Quality of life is my measure of success and It could be happier.
3. How do you manage producing newspapers for 21 towns?
That is my most asked question. There is no simple answer but it is a combination of experience, work ethic, and ability. Together Tina and I have the skill set to do every task of running the business and production. I think that is unique. There are so many technical aspects of publishing the newspapers that would require several employees in a traditional office environment to complete and that if is not economically feasible.
4.What is your goal for Renna Media in the future?
I’m in the twilit of my career. My goal is to enjoy every minute of my day. Have more fun than the day before. I can’t wait until tomorrow.
5.What would you tell someone who wants to do what you do?
I like helping out creative people, and no one should need to tell them to write, or draw, or broadcast or publish. They should be doing that every day for no other reason but because they love to. Look for mentors who could help you, work hard, be honest, and fair. Advice for being an entrepreneur is entirely different. Running a business requires a skill in addition to your craft or talent. Not many have both. A solid business plan must work on paper before investing time, energy, and money.
About Renna Media:
Renna Media is a Cranford based business owned and operated by husband and wife team Joe and Tina Renna. Renna Media’s family of 21 community newspapers are published in and around Union and Somerset counties with a total circulation of over 135,000 newspapers mailed monthly. The publications are “hyper-local” in nature in that they contain information focused on each individual town and are direct mailed within those towns.
The hyper-local design gives businesses the highest value for their advertising dollars. The newspapers are designed (black ink on newsprint) to keep the cost of an advertisement to as low as $60 for a business card size ad. Regional businesses can take advantage of one low rate for being in multiple publications.
The goal of all our community newspapers is to have a positive influence on the economic development and overall well-being of the towns they serve. The newspapers deliver important information from the departments in town hall, schools, and libraries, and give a venue to non-profit organizations to promote upcoming events as well as to showcase the accomplishments of local residents and businesses.
Joe and Tina Renna, owners of Renna Media, LLC, have been publishing community newspapers since 1998 with the launch of Around About Peterstown, a regional newspaper about the Italian-American neighborhood in Elizabeth, NJ.
For more information about Renna Media publications, please contact info@rennamedia.com; or call 908-418-5586.
Diaries of a Warcraft Widow Volume 1
For a geeky person, dating is always nerve-wracking, wondering when your inner geek will become full-fledged outer geek to your new love interest. When they spot the Harry Potter doll sitting on your bedside table? When they stop by unannounced when you’re six hours into a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon, hair a mess, chin greasy with buttered popcorn? Someday it will come out.
But what if you’re not actually the nerd of the relationship? What if the other person in your relationship is the one that brings the real nerdiness to town? Sure, you can recite every episode of Buffy that James Marsters ever appeared in, but what if the person you love most the world can spend 14 hours straight playing World of Warcraft with breaks only for a new bowl of cereal? Perhaps you were prepared to disclose your geekiness to your new partner, but are you prepared to be the one dating the geek?
In my case, I wasn’t. I was used to being the quirky one with unusual interests. For the first year my now husband and I were in a relationship, I didn’t know he was a major geek. He wasn’t hiding it, but circumstances were such that when I did see him play video games it seemed to align with school vacations and be the exception not the rule. He had mentioned being a top-ranked WoW player years before, but as I come from the books/movies/tv sector of the geekdom, I didn’t really know what that meant. We spent more time at my apartment and he studied abroad for five months. When he returned from his trip we both moved to new apartments. I started spending more time at his place and saw…the set up.
It’s a modest one, to be sure. A massive Craigslist-find pressboard desk. A home built PC. A 40-inch tv screen. A chair he bought at flea market for $10. But the hours he spends at command central, fully engaged, began to surprise me. A year into our relationship all pretense was done away with. I spent the weekends on his couch doing homework while he played Ark with his roommate in the other room and his best friend who lived a floor above, talking to each other for hours via headset despite being less than 15 feet away from each other.
And I had to admit—maybe I didn’t get to be the geek in this relationship.
Since then, I’ve taken on a role many partners have who are in relationships with serious gamers—Warcraft Widow, i.e. I get a lot of alone time on raid nights! Like anyone with a life partner who is seriously committed to a hobby, I’ve come to realize what exactly it means to love a geek, and how much fun you can have along the way.
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