From the Publisher, Tracy Dietlin
This issue marks Coachella Valley Weekly’s 11 years of being a publication. Every year on our Anniversary we put all of the previous year’s cover on that issue’s cover.
Even during Covid I knew that I couldn’t give up and had to pull my big girl panties on, roll up my sleeves and continue to publish every week. And that is what we have done every week since over the last 3 years. I was not going to let my publication fail…not my baby.
Thanks to Phil Lacombe my amazing partner, we started doing a weekly newsletter/eblast putting CV Weekly in everybody’s inbox on top of publishing online and in print.
Owning my own publication had been a dream of mine for many years and on March 29, 2012 my dream came true. It’s taken a lot of hard work and determination over the years as CV Weekly has literally been my life. I eat, sleep and breathe everything CV Weekly.
I am proud of the issues that we published each and every week as we had to change our focus from being an entertainment driven publication to a new direction to cover the events of the time. I have an amazing team to thank for their unwavering support during the last year. (Please see list below).
I would like to thank all of our loyal readers and advertisers over the last 11 years for all of your support.
The last 11 years have been stressful, all consuming, fulfilling, rewarding and everything in between, but most of all my dream came true and I wouldn’t trade them for anything! Here’s to another 11. Cheers!
NOW for the THANK YOUs:
I would like to thank our current team. First, I want to thank my partner, Phil Lacombe who has been by my side through all of this. He has handled our social media and the Club Crawler Nightlife from the beginning and handles the weekly digital eblast newsletter. I could not have done this without his love and support.
Second, I want to thank Robert Chance, our amazing Art Director. Not only does he design creative covers, build ads, does photography for many of the covers, lays out the publication, but he also does assistant editing. He is irreplaceable, a friend, family, and simply THE BEST!
Next I want to thank Billy Westley, who since the beginning drove from Hemet every week out to Sylmar to pick up the paper and then helped deliver it. You are a valued member of the team. And now with our new printer he doesn’t have to make that drive anymore as they get delivered to my front door. Thank you for still delivering the paper every week. And a thank you to Matthew Kovach for assisting Billy in delivering.
Bobby Taffolla, who handles the weekly website management and saves all our butts every week when corrections are needed at the drop of a hat. You have done a fantastic job and it is much appreciated. You my friend are a rockstar!
Crystal Harrell, our head feature writer. You joined us a few years ago and I can’t thank you enough for all the top-notch articles you have written during this pandemic. You are an amazing young woman and brilliant writer and I’m fortunate to have you on my team.
Thank you to Kirby our Advertising Account Executive who has been kicking butt lately.
To all of our other current feature writers: Tricia Witkower, Rich Henrich, Denise Ortuno, Laura Hunt Little, Esther Sanchez, Lola Rossi, your contributions are most appreciated.
Thank you to our current columnists, many who have been with us since the beginning, Haddon Libby, Dale Gribow, Rick Riozza, Janet McAfee, Eleni Austin, Raymond Bill, Sam DiGiovanna, Rob Brezny, Craig Michaels and DeeJae Cox. Your continued support and dedication over the last 11 years and especially the last two has meant the world to me.
Thank you to writers that have come on board over the last several years who have added additional quality content to our publication: Ruth Hill, Deann Lubell, Michelle Borthwick, Aimee Mosco, Lynne Tucker, Chris Clemens, Daniel Paris, Nadia Popova, Dennis Shelly, Merita Wheel -Zot, Madeline Zuckerman, and Ed Heethuis.
There are several past columnists that were with us for many years whose contributions were so important: Heidi Simmons (my biggest fan and cheerleader), Robin Simmons, Bronwyn Ison, Bruce Cathcart, Sunny Simon, Jason Hall, Dr. Peter Kadile, Marissa Willman, Elizabeth Scarcella, Aaron Ramson, Flint Wheeler, and the late Judith Salkin.
A big thank you to all of our photographers over the years that provided quality work: Laura Hunt Little, Chris Miller, Robert Chance, Iris Hall, Steve Young, Brian Blueskye, Esther Sanchez, Scott Pam, Lani Garfield, Kurt Schawacker and Crystal Harrell.
Each and every one of you have made this publication the success that it is. I have the BEST TEAM!
And finally I must acknowledge and thank my very dear friend, our local legend, the late BB Ingle. His support throughout the years was immeasurable. He was on more of our covers than anyone. Most importantly he was on our very first mock cover. When I told BB I was going to start my own publication in 2012 and asked if I could put him on the mock cover to use to be able to go out and sell ads for our actual first issue he said “Absolutely!” So we did a St. Patrick’s Day cover; his favorite holiday.
Over the years, every chance that he got to speak publicly about CV Weekly, including his acceptance speech when he was honored with the “Lifetime Achievement Award for Best Promoter” at the 2019 CV Music Awards, he would always say: “Tracy and Phil have never missed putting out an issue every week in all these years!” And you were right BB…even during the pandemic we still put out an issue every week. Love and miss you BB!
