We looked at the YP movement is bigger than Roanoke, and as a result, a plethora of qualitative stories of people staying and returning are being told through more informal channels. Today, we look at how traditional media has helped influence community awareness and urgency of the issue.

On just programs we are involved in over the last 2 years, we have 90 unique tradional media exposures through print, TV and radio. Our programs have been featured in local, state and national outlets. That equates to nearly one per week. However, recently we have been seeing more unsolicited stories on the topic, which are being engrained into other stories and articles.

Perhaps the greatest example of this is that the Collegiate Times - the Virginia Tech student newspaper, wrote this unsolicited editorial saying student should seek opportunities to work in Roanoke. We had no knowledge this was going to hit and we could not have written it better ourselves.

Closely related has been the more than usual editorials written about the young adult movement from paid staffers and ordinary citizens. There have been countless refereneces to the movement in many other print, TV and radio content.

Ultimately, media outlets such as WDBJ7, City Magazine, The Roanoker and The Roanoke Times among others have been more than willing to partner on our programs and events such as the Reverse Job Fair and the Holiday Career and Lifestyle Fair. 

As a result, of this traditional media exposure, we have been able to identify and engage many others for the movement. We will talk more about that component in our next blog post tomorrow.