West Of’s founder looks back on two decades of publishing West Ashley’s newspaper
by Lorne Chambers | Editor
I bought my first house right here in West Ashley when I was 25 years old. It was a small two-bedroom, one-bath cinderblock ranch off Wappoo Road that sat on a concrete slab bordering an empty, marshy lot that was prone to flooding. It was what realtors might have called the “quintessential starter home.” This was back in 2000, when banks would give almost anyone a mortgage. It cost $68,000 with zero down on a three-year ARM (adjustable rate mortgage). These were the sorts of loans that helped bring on the 2008 financial crisis and would have probably crushed me had I not sold the place before that note matured.
I used the money I made on that house to buy another house less than a mile away, along the West Ashley Greenway. It was also a 2-bedroom, 1-bath house that would have also been considered a starter home. It was even smaller than the first one, but it was nicer and thus almost 50 percent more expensive. The Charleston real estate marketing was just starting to explode.
It was while living at this house along the West Ashley Greenway that it occurred to me that, unlike just about every other part of town, West Ashley did not have its own newspaper. There was The Moultrie News in Mt. Pleasant, The North Charleston News, The Summerville-Journal Scene, and even the James Island Journal. Within the next year or two after I started West Of, Sullivan’s Island/IOP would have The Island Eye News, Johns Island/Kiawah would have the Island Connection, and Daniel Island and Folly Beach would each have their own community newspapers. But West Ashley, where I lived, did not.
West Ashley was, and still is, the largest population hub in the region. Yet it was often overlooked. In some ways, it was still the Wild West of Charleston. Zoning and code enforcement didn’t care much about what happened on this side of the river. City Hall often ignored West Ashley when it came to improvement projects and special events. This was partly because West Ashley was and remains hard to define. You won’t find it on a map. It isn’t an island. Heck, it isn’t even a town like many other places in the area. Some parts of West Ashley are in the city, some unincorporated. It encompasses two zip codes, and its population is more diverse than most other area, not only racially but financially, politically, and culturally. Providing a newspaper that served everyone in this area would be a challenge.
But I did have some experience in the business, even if I had back-doored into a journalism career with a sociology degree from the College of Charleston and a minor in Creative Writing. I had briefly done some work with CofC’s newspaper, and after graduation, I took a job as a reporter for a community weekly in Sarasota, Florida. They would actually pay me to write, and living along the Gulf Coast seemed fun. I got $350 a week before taxes were taken out. It was enough to cover rent with a roommate or two, and there were even a few bucks left over for a couple of cheap beers. The rest of the beers were put onto a credit card. I was surrounded by snowbirds and retirees in gated communities. I felt like I was at the starting line of my life, while everyone around me seemed to be coasting toward the finish line. I found myself desperately missing Charleston. So less than two years into my Florida stint, I found myself moving back to the Lowcouynty of South Carolina. I began working at the Charleston City Paper, an edgy alternative weekly that I’m happy to see is still fighting the good fight. The City Paper gig was a dream. I was in my 20s and getting paid to see bands and write about them, interview artists and musicians I loved, and had access to all the cool stuff in town. The City Paper office was fun, lively, and never boring. Like everyone who worked there, the owners were young and scrappy. Newspapers, especially alternatives to the dailies, were still cool and vibrant.
As much as I loved my City Paper job, I really wanted to do my own thing. I was approaching 30 and knew that at some point, I wouldn’t have the drive or blind ignorance that would allow me to take such a huge risk. I started to pay attention to every aspect of the publishing business, from the editorial layout to ad sales to distribution. I picked up other newspapers when I traveled. What made this one better than that one?
Over the course of a year, I began planning a community newspaper for West Ashley. I put together a business plan and talked with buddies who I thought could be future employees. I decided to call the paper West Of, which I thought was pretty clever at the time. In retrospect, it wasn’t the greatest name. But I didn’t think about Google searches or Search Engine Optimization. I just thought it sounded cool. West of what? People asked. I told them it was west of downtown Charleston, west of the mainstream. Starting a print newspaper in the 21st century was west of anything that a financial adviser or business mentor would recommend.
I got some help from a good friend and former coworker named Amy Pastre, who was quickly skyrocketing to rock-star status in the Charleston design world. But she was generous with her time and expertise. She created a logo and a layout template for the paper, which made it all feel very real. It was real. The only problem was that I still had no money and running and printing a newspaper is expensive! Plus, after five years, I had just quit my job at City Paper after five years. Banks weren’t too keen on giving loans to upstart newspaper publisher and there really aren’t government or SBA loans available for media outlets. So, I pulled all of the equity out of my little brick house along the West Ashley Greenway. I put it all on red and spun that big roulette wheel of entrepreneurship.
I took out a lease on a small office along St. Andrew’s Boulevard that my father helped me fix it up and to make functional. I hired a couple of friends: Warren Cobb to be the paper’s Community Editor, a title we made up, and Brian Whittaker, who was our sole sales rep in the beginning. While Warren and I had worked together at the paper in Florida, Brian was new to the newspaper biz. But he was a quick study and was able to scrounge up a few ads. I’m proud to say, that several of those advertisers are still with the paper today. The first issue of West Of came out on Feb. 1, 2005.
That was also the day I met Lindsey Smith, who would later become Lindsey Chambers. She was a student at the College of Charleston and walked into the office to interview for an internship just as that first issue was being delivered. She has literally been there from day one. When her internship ended at the end of that semester, she kept hanging around, helping wherever she could. The next year, when she graduated, she officially began working at the paper. A couple of years later, we started dating. Several years after that, we were married.
There are so many people who played key roles in helping make my dream of creating a West Ashley newspaper a reality. I’m proud that they have moved on to greater things, to have families and create businesses of their own. But Lindsey has been there for it all, eventually becoming my business partner and life partner.
The last two decades haven’t always been smooth sailing for the newspaper. We’ve weathered a recession and a pandemic and were forced to adapt to a rapidly changing media landscape, going from a tabloid-sized weekly to a larger, monthly news magazine. But through it all, we’ve stayed true to our mission—to be the community newspaper for West Ashley. Not only did we survive, but we thrived. 2024 was our best year yet. We have advertisers who have been with us for 10, 15, even 20 years.
After all this time, I still love publishing an actual hold-in-your-hands, ink-on-your-fingers newspaper. There’s still an excitement to seeing the latest issue in print. It’s so much more real to me than any blog or social media post will ever be. Print media is far from dead. It’s just evolving. The West Of Free Press will be right here evolving, too.
Maybe starting a newspaper in the 21st century was a crazy idea. But hey, I have another crazy idea … let’s do it for 20 more!
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