Pahrump Valley Community News is a digital newspaper run by Amy Veloz that reports on things going on in Pahrump. Veloz is currently doing things independently, but is dedicated to highlighting the community with a focus on covering the schools’ sports teams and events. The PVC News covers everything from sports, to businesses in Pahrump. It provides a detailed analysis of the topic they’re talking about and has information that gives a good understanding.
Veloz answered some questions that were asked to get a better understanding of what inspired her to start the newspaper and what kind of history she has with things like this. She was asked what inspired her to start reporting on the community and PVHS, and she replied, “As a former PVHS athlete, I hated seeing that lack of care for our students and their activities. When I decided to start my newspaper, I wanted to make sure I covered as much as possible. I try to make sure I cover every sport and the varying divisions (B team, JV, Varsity) as possible.” She understands that most people take the negative way in life and complain a lot, but she wants to show the positive side because she knows there are a lot of good things about Pahrump.
Veloz has a lot of experience with news reporting because she grew up in a newspaper office. Her dad worked there, and he would either run his paper or work for someone else’s, so she’s had her base knowledge to run a newspaper. Before she moved to Pahrump, Veloz lived in Kentucky and won a Kentucky Press award for Female Sports Writer of the Year in 1998. She majored in journalism in college and worked in public relations for about 22 years.
She enjoys working in the news industry:“I love hearing their stories and then putting them into my own words for everyone else to read.”. The positive feedback is another reason she keeps doing it. She says, “When someone thinks you’re doing a good job at something, it is great motivation to keep going.”
“There weren’t really any problems, just logistics,” said Veloz when asked if there were any problems when first starting. She already had a business license from her other profession, but she needed to get a town license. The different pieces of licensing had expenses, so Veloz had to have money put aside for that.
Luckily, Veloz knew people from her previous career who helped create the logo and set up the website. Additionally, she stated, “But everything has a cost associated with it, and starting a business isn’t cheap. In addition, I do still have my other job and three kids still at home, so finding the time has been a bit of a struggle.” In the future, Veloz wants to keep the newspaper how it is now and to get help, but she isn’t in the position for something like that at the moment. She’s hoping to sell more advertisements and bring on help with it and plans to keep covering sports and writing business stories. “I’m always looking for ideas and would happily accept story ideas that align with my mission. I also would love to eventually get to the point where every senior in the school is filling out my Senior Spotlight questions so they can be featured.”
PVCN is a family business and Veloz’s husband, Benjamin Veloz is the primary photographer. He provided his opinion on the digital newspaper: “I think having a newspaper that highlights a lot of the great things our community is doing is important. We have a lot of amazing people here and businesses that Pahrump residents don’t know about. I think it’s great that we get a chance to highlight them.” Benjamin previously coached many high school athletes in middle school and thinks it’s amazing to see their growth as a player. He thinks that it’s a really good source for the community, and really good for small businesses out here.
Overall, the digital newspaper is an excellent and useful source for the people of Pahrump. If you want to find out what’s going on in the community, PVC News is where you want to look.
