hi i'm mandy pryor and welcome to spotlight on pittsburgh spotlight on pittsburgh is a program about pittsburgh most fascinating people and what they do to make our city an amazing place to live and work when we come back i'll introduce you to katie green editorial director of  niche publications for the observer reporter later in the show will bring on joe produce the vice president of relationship banking at brentwood bank family was drifting apart found the connection you have the power to change your child's life the boystown national hotline can help hi katie thanks so much for coming on thanks for having me so what can you tell me a about your position and what the observer part in the specialty publications have to do with and without him so the observer reporter is the daily newspaper in washington and greene counties and the mon valley has a little bit of the south hills with the almanac the weekly community newspaper my publications are there there are so many we have four glossy lifestyle magazines there's living in washington county green county magazine mon valley magazine and south hills living and those of course they name the green county magazine after you they did not  no a on the end of my name but we have those and then we have south point today which is a quarterly publication i also handle all of the companies events publications so there's a little pocket guide for the festival the food truck festival we are in the second year of a partnership with the meadows racetrack and casino doing a kind of one off glossy magazine for them and then there are a whole bunch of others and i don't know how many there are and so typical audience obviously it might change a little bit but is there something specific or somebody is geared toward i want to say somebody that is geared toward obviously geographically but really what the magazines serve to do is highlight why these communities are so special the people the places the things it's it's more of the fun stuff we let the newspaper handle the hard news and the controversies well i think there's something you know special and something that you read that's a little more lighthearted in and getting into the communities and finding out more about people so how long have you been helping with this special publication side so my role is actually for the company and i've been in it for almost two years now and prior to that i was the editor at the almanac the south hills community newspaper and i know that people might have questions about what what does an editor do on a typical basis what what is your primary focus when you're in there doing your position and putting these magazines out so there's no typical day because it depends on what we're working on and where we are in the process i basically oversee everything from start to finish that brainstorming to getting it off to the printer and making sure it looks perfect i may jump in and write articles myself i've been known to go and take photos myself depending on what is going on brainstorming with the staff at assisting our photographers on photo shoots making sure that the creative is what i want so it's no pressure to no no pressure but it's fun because like i said there's no typical day so it's not like you go into work every day and sit at a desk and do the same thing i i'm out in the community i'm doing things like this i'm meeting people that's fun great and so you know when it comes to these magazines how can people go about getting them are they something good newsstand or you know what's fair so they are all inserted within that day's paper again based on where you live and there may be extra copies of advertiser locations but the best way to make sure you get these publications is to subscribe to the observer reporter and just get plugged in and so they get a lot of viewership then i mean obviously the observer reporter goes out to i don't know how many households but you know a lot of eyes on it navi asli it's a special way of companies are looking to get their names out there absolutely and so what would you tell me something surprising that maybe we don't know about these magazines that maybe you've come across over the years something surprising that people don't know didn't mean to stump you i now you know i mean there's there's really a lot that goes into them and i think people know that but you know people are always so excited to be featured or to be a part of them i don't think i'm answering your question i did i did i think a lot of pictures are kind of important and you know sometimes when there's inserts and papers it can be you know put to the side but obviously if they're special content then it's something you want to open up and  maybe make part of your coffee on sunday exactly and so what is you know what kind of is the newest of the magazines or the newer magazines that are out there so mon valley magazine has only been around we're going into our second year of publication for that i think second year third year sorry the years are creeping up on me but that we started that one when we made more of a focus to get into the mon valley and cover the mon valley with news and we thought since we're focusing a little more there let's also add a magazine good and so you know i'm sure you know that people are looking at newspapers as something they don't know where the future is so why do you think people should stay reading and looking at these these magazines say here's what i say when anybody says you know newspapers are going away the internet is taking over you're always going to need a trusted source to get your news and i really emphasize trusted there's a lot of stuff on the internet that you know just anyone can get on and type and put on social media and it goes viral but it's not real it's to use a buzz word fake news so regardless you're always going to need a trusted source you're always going to need trained editors trained reporters trained fact checkers trained photographers so even if in fifty years we're not holding that printed product we still need a way to get our news legitimate news i agree and i think exposure for this area you know we don't have the news stations that are necessarily here every day so it's nice to have that local news something in the in the backyards of our neighborhood right and i mean i myself i'm thirty six i grew up before the internet you know so hoarding to me holding on to that printed product in the morning while i have my coffee is a lot more special than just kind of scanning the internet on my i pad and d v r ing past stories and commercials and right right so i know you know the kids filming us right now they probably know nothing else but there is something special about holding that paper well used to be the only source of news for quite a long time so i mean that like a passenger pigeon maybe would have something we don't have power of your own horse riding around so we've we can bring that back because we could be delivering newspapers for the observer and so you know how could somebody get a subscription to the observer reporter what's the easiest way to go out there and go about it to their house observer dash reporter dot com somewhere on that side only if it's the top of the bottom there's a place to subscribe and you can subscribe to print you always get a an online subscription with that prince of scription but if you don't want to hold that paper every morning you can just do online there's various tiers that's good and is there anything else that you know people can do with your online resources or within your newspaper i guess you know businesses i know th advertising there's a million advertisers so why would you suggest a business you know to the observer reporter of or something else it's out there because we're local we're local and we're trusted we've been in the community for over two hundred years and you know the people of western pennsylvania washington green county i'm on valley that's their newspaper and is there anything new coming up in the world of it doesn't have to necessarily be with these publications but over you know an overview of events or anything that you guys have coming up with in these are reporters we have the food truck festival coming up memorial day weekend that's at the meadows casino it's a family event we kind of take over the track in the apron with i think they're up to more than fifty food trucks right now i've been there it is quite the food truck rally yeah i'm hungry this isn't like that or this is like an event to do you come along very bring the family it's a lot of fun and then go up sixty ft if you don't have your family with you because without them right now but and you always have the answer as well live music vendors stuff for the kids to do so it's more than just common eat and one does that usually when does that usually take place memorial day weekend so here there is friday and it goes saturday and sunday that's great hopefully pools are open food truck really lots to do yeah and is there anything else that i haven't touched base on that i haven't thought of i don't think so we've pretty much covered it ok great well thank you so much for coming on and we'll bring you back out here with joe in a little bit some of the they don't know that you are also part of the chamber of commerce community chamber of commerce but i'll get into that later night all right to find out more about the observer reporter specialty magazine's publications go to observer dash reporter dot com backslash publications will be back after the break hi and welcome back we have joe produce the from brentwood bank hijab how are you very good good well thanks so much for coming on the show but i guess i'm going to start with just asking a little bit about what your position is that brentwood bank would bank we have a group of relationship bankers that pretty much know everything about banking and all were not segregated to having one certain product the people that work in that department need to be able to help a client from their personal checking account to their home equity or mortgage to say own a business to be able to help with their banking there as well as if you wanted to buy a multimillion dollar building and sometimes even get a chance to finance a fire truck or for a nonprofit organization so that's fun in the variety is probably about one of the fire truck well we'll talk some right and so how long have you been in banking actually banking twenty three years in the couple weeks ago i had my twentieth year anniversary of brown back that's that's quite a while so you feel comfortable in the position you have been what's kind of your favorite part about being in banking being able to help everybody anybody that they don't do it every day i do banking every day i help people buy mortgages buy houses probably the best thing that i enjoyed doing the most is helping somebody buy their first home it's a total life change for them and it's one of those fun things that they don't know what all the banks on their own most banks will say customer service and unfortunately i have to say customer service but the good part about brentwood bank is no one leaves everybody is like for example i'm there twenty years most of the people at the bank have been there for a long period of time so then you get to know the customers you get to know people and then those people like to refer other people a great example is i just did a mortgage for a couple that i have done a loan for their parents and i've done a para loan for their grandparents i'm not that old but at the same time it's a really fun experience to be able to help a whole family do something said very committed community driven yes and if so how many locations do you have we have four branches one in  but you know i mean one of the other things that the we try to do is be able to belong and the community for example myself i was the president of the bridgeville baseball program for ten years and heavily involved in the rotary program involved in our church with the basketball upwards program it's really fun to be able to know the people in your community in to be honest with you it helps them have a comfort level coming to talk about their finances because sometimes it's a little bit taboo talking about banking with people yeah i think it's something that definitely scares people when they're first approaching it even when they're they've been doing their own finances for a while people avoid it so how do you kind of get them to open up in and it's more of an education they in to because it's one of those things were just getting comfortable with a person and not having a problem talking to them about it and then i just educate them give them their options help them decide on what to do and what best fits them that's probably one of the best things about brown because we're a small institution we have the ability of molding things into what they need instead of the larger institutions of pretty much just have cookie cutter products and services that they can do to what they need and so how long it's been like bang i don't know ninety five years ninety five year and five years so how long was the brentwood bank original in brentwood which by the way this is embarrassing enough that i didn't even put two and two together know ninety five years of brentwood how it started was with an orange great group of gentlemen had an orange crate they went down to the the real yards are the places where the steel workers were come back into town they've given their check and then they would take their books go back to the branch at night do all the postings get their cash or whatever they needed meet them back at the the station the next morning and give them back their money or their deposit slips or their their bank books so it's really neat to see how it has come from there said seems like it was kind of taking after it's a wonderful life sort of that's what i'm getting in my head is sure and so now with the new digital age and banking moving more digital how i brentwood you know staying up to date probably the biggest part is nobody comes to the branches anymore which is fine but you have to be able to reach those kinds to be able to help them or have the communications and the unit do all of the e mails electronic banking businesses we have the scanners and in being able to give the businesses that capability electronically probably the biggest thing is education on how to use the services and some people just giving in to making sure that it's secure and very helpful for them to be able to everybody's at a fast pace and they don't have time so that's probably the biggest part of teaching people on how do you take advantage of that technology and say somebody coming in for a mortgage or a loan or homeowner business loan what can they do to prepare before they even walk through the bank doors to get themselves you know ready to kind of go away that being organized having your financials with you understanding what you have and what you don't and maybe even before when you set up that appointment ask what would you like me to bring a lot of people bring their tax returns and things like that but also their information about everything so then we can make a f decision on everything instead of just one little segment and give them education on everything that they have available to and so i guess is there anything that is commonly misconstrued when it comes to banking what time do i go to you know you have all those commercials you try to be always available when you can for your customers a lot of my customers are my cell phone so there's an issue over a weekend if they feel comfortable they can call me i have no problem i might be able to do anything but i could at least call their nerves of what's going on there just available twenty four hours a day like for that although you should have that experience and you know some of your different branches i easy is i mean what are kind of some of the perks also of banking with family bank probably the biggest perk is that we are mutual holding company bank where we don't have stock so therefore we have the ability of making long term decisions instead of that short term decision to hurry up and make some fee income or do something so we can pay stockholders probably the best benefit that we have that we don't have that issue to have to deal with trying to make that quick turnaround on  income we can look at things in what makes sense to for our customers as well as what makes sense for the bank and who has your typical ideal customer anybody that's looking for a new change one of the things we do always like to do is if you people struggle with having the ability to make that change and we help them all the time so probably the customers anybody looking for a change in their banking and advice on how they can improve themselves financially good and is there anything else that i haven't touched base on that you would like to share about the banks or you know what you're doing within the community and you think well we like to be involved in the community and help out in any way we can i mean that's part of being a community bank  of the things we like to do is be involved in any of the different programs that are going on the chamber is a perfect example where that's helping businesses in our community be able to meet each other and generate business which only helps the community  we will be right back after this commercial with katie and joe for a fun little challenge thank you here's something we bet you didn't know nearly half of all cancers can be prevented mostly by making changes in your diet controlling your weight and of course by not smoking does it prevent fifty dot org and get a free thirty day planner filled with tips recipes and more and welcome back to spotlight on pittsburgh so we have katie here and we have joe here and i say it so loosely because i am director of the southwest community's chamber of commerce and they are my vice president and my treasurer and i see them all the  said katie green job producing which i actually still mispronounces last name so you know being that i know them as well as i do and we have a lot of fun at our chamber and and kind of promoting stuff within the community i thought  the spock i didn't know there was a spock and i've been really into using the weightlifting one recently to have a favorite emoji i do a lot of the smiley face on with the my know it like they go to wrong with it all right so the first question is and you're just going to reach in and just this is just going to be what your emotions are i'm just reading i'm reading inside your mind the first one is going to be what do you think of driving feel loved it katie do you feel the same way she good good i love it so now that we know all of our thoughts through the special the public publication the specialty show sorry there's a little action in the background right now you know i'm really happy that i had you guys on because i was unsure about some of the answers but hopefully will continue again that this conversation soon this is how we run our board meeting by the way that's special thank you to joe and katie very visiting the show as well as volunteering your time with the southwest communities chamber of commerce also a special thanks to all of my board members for their time as well to find out more about the southwest communities chamber of commerce go to c c o c dot org thank you once again for watching spotlight on pittsburgh please follow us on facebook and instagram at spotlight on pittsburgh dot com and join us again when we shine the spotlight on to you guys thank you