#MediaMonday – Amanda June
Each and every Monday, we post a blog to help our readers get to know the media just a little bit better.
With a TURN and maybe a TWIST! No, we aren’t posting pitch tips or media lists, but instead great stories from the media themselves about their lives, their work and other little known facts! Think of it as your first “networking” opportunity of the week!
Today we hear from Amanda June, the editor of the new publication The Visionary Business Magazine, which launched its first issue in March 2015. It is a national publication (based in Arizona) dedicated to cross-cultural business relations and economic development in Indian Country and Latino communities.
Amanda is Native American (Navajo and Hopi) and Latino, and as such noticed a gap in the coverage of business and economic development in Indian Country and the Latino communities, and she decided to do something about it.
In 2012, Amanda graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nonprofit management from Arizona State University. Amanda is very active in the community and is the current board president of the Morning Star Leadership Foundation and a board member at Books for a Better World.
Originally from the Flagstaff area, Amanda lives in Phoenix with her two-year-old son, Sage. In her free time she enjoys reading, dancing, and watching The Walking Dead.
So, Amanda take it away!
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
First of all, thank you Rachel and HMA for the opportunity to share! I am extremely excited and grateful to share our new publication with the world and see what kind of impact we can make with it. Crossing over into the media realm has been quite the feat and I learn a bit more about it every day.
I am a first-time editor, and publisher for that matter, but I have been a writer for as long as I can remember. I never thought I would get paid to write, and when I landed my first job as a public relations and marketing professional, I often hit “writer’s block” from the internal pressure I felt to write what was expected and at the level I deemed sufficient. I still feel quite intimidated about having my writing under public scrutiny, but I think it’s also what compels me to create quality work with substance that people will want to keep reading.
I often get asked about the purpose of the publication, its dual foci of Native American and Latino markets, and why I chose to start a magazine in the “dying” age of print. The long and short of it is that there simply aren’t enough minority-owned media outlets. I have worked in community programs and media relations just long enough to realize that if the stories aren’t coming from the people who live them, there will always be something missing or even purposely removed to diminish the real issues at hand. My goal with SmokeFire Media and The Visionary Business Magazine is to bring minority leaders’ voices to the forefront of the national economic development discussion. I’m hoping that by bringing Native and Latino business leaders together within this publication that they’ll finally realize they have a lot in common economically, politically, and culturally – perhaps they’ll begin to talk and work together on a regular basis. As for the magazine, if you’ve ever lived or worked on a reservation you know the answer to that – there is still no internet or even stable electricity on most reservations today; so if you want to reach Indian Country you have to be available in hard copy or on the air waves (radio)!
I know that we have very lofty goals for this publication and for the future of SmokeFire Media and I am very “green” in this profession, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from media professionals and journalists I admire; it’s that the press is not for the faint of heart and how true the adage, “the pen is mightier than the sword.”
I invite any and all business and community leaders to join our movement, and to bring their voices to the forefront. Please send your stories and inquiries to editor@thevisionarymag.com.
