WARREN, Pa. – Yourdailylocal, llc, the parent company of the YDL Sports Network/D9and10sports.com is receiving an Excellence in Business award from the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry (WCCBI) Thursday at the WCCBI’s annual awards dinner.
Your Daily Local is one of six businesses receiving the Excellence in Business Award and is being joined by AllImage Graphics, Faded Floral, Ida Mae’s, Rad Lands Co., Yankee Bush Productions, and Your Daily Local.
“When we found out, I had to do a double-take,” Your Daily Local Co-Owner Chris Rossetti said. “I mean, we have only been around a little over three years. The impact we must have made on someone, somewhere is humbling.
“The goal, when we founded this company, was to bring a new kind of news outlet to Warren County with yourdailylocal.com while also providing some of the region’s best sports coverage through the sports site.”
According to Rossetti, the way both sites have evolved in such a short time is both amazing and awe-inspiring.
“To see how the people in Warren and Forest Counties have embraced what we are doing with the news site brings joy to my heart,” Rossetti said. “We wanted to be able to give people a different kind of online news source that was free of charge yet still delivered timely news. While we can always do better, I do believe we have achieved that.”
As for the sports site, Rossetti is amazed by how it has evolved in such a short time.
“I had ties in District 9 and with a lot of the small colleges in the area,” Rossetti, the former assistant Sports Information Director and Sports Web Director at Clarion University said. “And I knew that both Andy Close, the former Sports Editor at the Warren Times Observer, and Brian Hagberg, who was Andy’s assistant, had ties to the District 10 community, but you are never sure how quickly those ties turn into people actually wanting to read and view your content.”
According to Rossetti, one of the things he nor his two business partners could ever anticipate when the company was founded during the summer of 2020 was how big of a role video broadcasting would play on the sports side of things.
“To be honest, we never even talked about video streaming when we started the company,” Rossetti said. “But that was the summer of 2020 and that fall with COVID-19 still in the air there was limited capacity in gymnasiums across the Commonwealth. That sort of forced people to find new ways to watch sports, and thus the video component of the company was born. It has grown by leaps and bounds since those earlier days, and I anticipate that it will continue to grow as we move forward.”
Rossetti said the company wouldn’t be where it is now without the dedication of his two business partners.
“I had known Andy for a long time,” Rossetti said. “He was one of my student-workers back when I worked at Clarion University. I knew what kind of talent he had when he was an undergraduate and that has continued to grow. At the same time, I barely knew Brian. Andy is the one who brought him in. And every day I am thankful for that. From those first few days of the company, I feel like I have known Brian my entire life. The best thing about our little venture is we all bring different strengths to the table and that helps us to be able to do what we do.”
In addition to the founding members of the company, the contractors that work with the company are also very important to its success, according to Rossetti.
“Everyone that has helped us over the last three-plus years has added to what we have been able to do,” Rossetti said. “There are so many of them that it’s hard to list them all but Rich Rhoades is always there when we need advice or contacts or anything else. He is simply the dean of journalists in District 9 and would do anything for the student-athletes in that district. I also want to specifically shout out to Cody Elms, Al Modrzejewski, Jess Quinn, Dave Constantino, and Larry Wiser for what they have done to help us with the broadcasting end of things. Folks like Paul Burdick, Steve Younger, Jared Bakaysa, and, more recently, Anna Mattivi, have also been very instrumental in our success from a visual end of things. And, from a personal standpoint, I can’t say enough about my former boss at Clarion University, Rich Herman. He is always there to be a sounding board whenever I need that and someone I know we can also turn to for advice. But, like I said, there are just so many people who have helped us so far that I can’t name them all. They know who they are and they know that we are grateful for their contributions.”
Rossetti also said the support from family has been instrumental to the success.
“This wouldn’t work without the support we get from our families,” Rossetti said. “My wife, Shenessa, has put up with an awful lot over the years with me working in sports. I know that Brian’s wife, Autumn, has had to shoulder the burden of raising their family probably more than she anticipated. And his three girls, Anna, Makena, and Caitlin, share their daddy with us all the time. Our parents are also some of our biggest fans. I know Brian’s mom is consistently commenting and sharing on social media, and I think my dad listens to more of our broadcasts than even I do. And, heck, Andy’s dad was one of our first advertisers and one of the first people we could turn to for advice.”
Rossetti also acknowledged the support the company has received from local and regional businesses and from just ordinary people donating to help keep the coverage coming.
“Without our advertisers, we wouldn’t be able to provide this service to anyone,” Rossetti said. “Every single one of them is more than just a business relationship to us, they have really become like family. And the people who have made donations or voluntary subscriptions, wow, I mean, what can you say? When someone steps up and pays you for something they don’t have to pay you for, it’s humbling.”
