Stew Leonard and Milford
Last week I wrote a story about Stew Leonard Jr. in connection to the former Milford Showcase Cinemas site.
When I wrote the article I was a little nervous because I wanted to be careful to not embellish anything. Essentially, just the facts. And sometimes in a news story it can be difficult to exactly describe how a story came together.
So I am using this blog to describe how that story evolved. It began innocently enough. Milford reporter Rich Scinto wrote a story that Developer Louis Ceruzzi Jr. purchased the former Cherry Street theater site, which had sat idle since 2006.
Immediately, we were curious as to who Ceruzzi would be bringing in to redevelop the site. When we posted the story online residents began saying they'd like it to be Stew Leonards.
We decided to engage the community further by creating a poll on what residents would like to see there, and one of the possible answer's was a Stew Leonard's store. The results were eye-popping. A total of 85 percent of respondents wanted Stew's store.
I emailed the findings to Stew, and he immediately responded by writing he was flattered by the support from Milford residents, and would visit the site. He did exactly that the very next day. He also wrote he really liked the site, but was committed to expansion in Long Island "right now."
I followed up by phone and email asking if he was interested in the Milford site, and never heard back. I wish I had so I could write an ending to my story, but I didn't.
That is why I felt apprehensive writing the story, mainly because I didn't know if Stew's interest was real or not. Everything I wrote in the story was accurate, but I wish I had that follow up interview with Stew in order to address all the questions.
Brian McCready
Metro Editor
New Haven Register
When I wrote the article I was a little nervous because I wanted to be careful to not embellish anything. Essentially, just the facts. And sometimes in a news story it can be difficult to exactly describe how a story came together.
So I am using this blog to describe how that story evolved. It began innocently enough. Milford reporter Rich Scinto wrote a story that Developer Louis Ceruzzi Jr. purchased the former Cherry Street theater site, which had sat idle since 2006.
Immediately, we were curious as to who Ceruzzi would be bringing in to redevelop the site. When we posted the story online residents began saying they'd like it to be Stew Leonards.
We decided to engage the community further by creating a poll on what residents would like to see there, and one of the possible answer's was a Stew Leonard's store. The results were eye-popping. A total of 85 percent of respondents wanted Stew's store.
I emailed the findings to Stew, and he immediately responded by writing he was flattered by the support from Milford residents, and would visit the site. He did exactly that the very next day. He also wrote he really liked the site, but was committed to expansion in Long Island "right now."
I followed up by phone and email asking if he was interested in the Milford site, and never heard back. I wish I had so I could write an ending to my story, but I didn't.
That is why I felt apprehensive writing the story, mainly because I didn't know if Stew's interest was real or not. Everything I wrote in the story was accurate, but I wish I had that follow up interview with Stew in order to address all the questions.
Brian McCready
Metro Editor
New Haven Register
Mr McCready, Thank you for explaining the full of it,'Stew Leonard' to us, your readers.
ReplyDeletejoe derosa