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Greaterpatchogue.com has found itself a storefront in Patchogue Village.
The news of a brick-and-mortar home for the website comes after four months of operating out of its unofficial headquarters at Roast Coffee & Tea in Patchogue, and public libraries from Blue Point to Brookhaven, as well as an unfinished basement in Bellport.
You can now find greaterpatchogue.com publisher and longtime New York journalist Michael White at 58 Waverly Avenue in Patchogue Village, where he’ll be leasing space within the new studio of longtime magazine photographer Benny Migliorino.
“This would certainly qualify as a ‘great story,'” White said. “Benny and I introduced ourselves to each other at Roast a couple weeks back, and he told me he was looking to open a studio nearby. Within a few hours we were at 58 Waverly Avenue and had informally agreed to share this neat and unique space near the traffic circle.”
“I have no doubt that working alongside such a driven and accomplished photographer is going to make the experience of greaterpatchogue.com that much better for its many readers.”
Growth at greaterpatchogue.com has been tremendous since launching July 1.
In that time, the site has attracted well more than 100,000 unique visitors, and, due to popular demand, is beginning to build an online store for Greater Patchogue gear.
Advertisers are also seeing the value in reaching so many local eyes at such competitive rates. As of Monday, nearly 70 percent of the site’s existing ad inventory had already been sold.
As for Migliorino, a Patchogue Village resident, his work has graced the pages of such magazines as Revolver, Popular Photography and Field & Stream, among others. In 2015 he released an educational book with Amherst Media called Alternative Portraiture: Artistic Lighting and Design for Environmental Photography.
He is a recipient of the Photographer of the Year award from the Professional Photographers of America, and the Grand Award in the portrait category from the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International.
“I was looking to meet with potential clients outside of Starbucks and Roast,” Migliorino said of the move. “I couldn’t really bring samples, like large portraits, into the coffee shops.”
He called sharing space with greaterpatchogue.com a great fit.
“I’ve been following Greater Patchogue since it launched and I liked what they’ve been trying to do to help the community,” he said. “And I’m a horrible writer, so bringing in an experienced journalist from the village will be a good learning experience for me.”
Migliorino is also looking to share some of the Waverly Avenue studio space with other entrepreneurs in the creative communities, perhaps on a per diem basis, he said.
A Long Island native and multi-award winning writer, White began working for a daily newspaper in Maryland immediately after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English/journalism from the University of Delaware in 2001.
He then earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and was a staff employee for the New York Post and the Daily News, where he last served as a crime reporter in the Daily News Police Bureau, located in NYPD headquarters.
He was then the editor of the Riverhead News-Review and, later, both the Riverhead News-Review and The Suffolk Times, which covers Long Island’s North Fork.
Both of those papers recently earned top honors through the New York Press Association for having the best editorial content among any community newspapers in the state.
“My career at both big and small media companies allows me to provide catchy, New York City-style newspaper writing on a local level, while keeping in mind the specific needs and sensibilities of our tight-knit villages and hamlets,” White said.
“With the support of my family and the communities here, it seems to be working,” he added. “The ability to now operate out of a commercial building is testament to that.”
Greaterpatchogue.com will continue to utilize a post office box at:
PO BOX 636, Bellport, NY 11713
