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Victoria’s Secrets: Special people making a difference

Jack Antonoff has a moving story of love and loss to share.
Photo via Shutterstock

I’m not sure when it began but I’m addicted to CBS’s Sunday Morning show from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Each Sunday morning, I gather the newspapers dropped at my doorstep and lay them out on my bed. My breakfast and coffee are at my elbow on a tray and I’m nestled into my bed to watch “Sunday” unfold.

This week, as all weeks, didn’t disappoint me! I got to know a performer who touched my heart, Jack Antonoff, a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and partner to the extraordinary actress/writer/director Lena Dunham who starred and wrote many episodes of the TV show “Girls.”

What impressed me most about Antonoff was his taking his life’s experiences and using his music to help him heal from life’s pain. He had a kid sister whose suffering from brain cancer tore open his heart and that of his family. He was able to channel his pain and anguish through songs like “Everybody Lost Somebody.”

“Everybody lost somebody, but we keep going. That’s what’s incredible about human beings, the choice to keep going,” said Antonoff in his CBS interview.

He shared his belief that we all carry sacks of sadness and loss, “Some bigger than others but every person alive carries something.” In fact, he said, “And if you think someone doesn’t have it, they have a bigger one than you can imagine.”

He has dealt with his pain as well as his joy through his music. And we are all enriched by his belief that if he likes a song, his audience will. But he never stops worrying that his audience will be there for him.

I think all successful people worry if their latest project will be successful. It comes with the territory of being creative or entrepreneurial.

John Kominicki joins Long Island Press

In that vein, my company has just made a major acquisition of the respected, even beloved Long Island Press. Born in Queens and serving Long Island too as a daily afternoon newspaper, it was shut down by union demands in 1977 and was dormant for decades.

Jed Morey bought the name and, in 2003, created a weekly newspaper that won countless awards for its coverage of critically important issues. It was the first publication to cover the then-unspoken opioid crisis. Many more powerful stories followed. After a number of years it became a monthly and then a digital property. When we bought it, it was longislandpress.com, and now we are launching on September 1 the Long Island Press print edition as a monthly publication.

John Kominicki is the new co-publisher and executive editor at the Long Island Press.
John Kominicki is the new co-publisher and executive editor at the Long Island Press.

The best news for us is that we have put together a great team to lead our new venture. Co-publisher will be John Kominicki, a 35-year veteran of the print and digital worlds who, as president, ran the Long Island Business News for over 15 years and created Innovate Long Island, a tech-focused digital media startup. He is a columnist and immersed in the life of Long Island. I’m proud to have such a profoundly connected, concerned and committed journalist to lead our newest publication.

Josh and I feel privileged to carry on the tradition of a newspaper with so many memories. If you have a memory of carrying the newspaper or a story that was in the Long Island Press, email me at vschneps@gmail.com and we will include it in our first edition coming out September 1.

Here’s to its rebirth!

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