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MANSFIELD - In the latest edition of The Conversation, I sat down with the founders of BS Media Productions, a family-owned company that runs the insanely popular OH.Report.
Brian and Jori Skowronski are a husband and wife team with a passion for making high school sports highlight tapes.
Jake Furr: So if you could, just explain what BS Media Productions and OH.Report and everything you guys do here because this is all still extremely new for you guys, right?
Brian Skowronski: I listed BS Media Productions as an official business with the state of Ohio in May of 2017. At that time, I didn't have any equipment to even have a production company, so I took out a small loan in July of that year and bought one camera and one computer. At the time, I was still working in local TV so for me, it was supposed to be meant for me as a side project to mostly have fun. When I started my Facebook page and put out my first video, it caught notice by the general manager at the TV station I was working and at he was not OK with me having a second job.
So that is actually how I got pushed out on my own. They let me go and fortunately, I at least had a camera and a computer and I contacted a couple of coaches who were still in fall sports playoffs at the time. What ended up saving me was Madison girls soccer went to the Final 4 and they wanted a video, Ashland football played Massillon in the playoffs and they wanted a video and the Shelby Whippets football team went to the Final 4. So the fact we had success locally was huge.
My first few videos, we probably only had 30 or 40 follows because I just started it. But when Shelby played Bellevue to win a regional title, that video was watched 8,000 times in one day. I just thought, "holy cow," because when I was at local TV, a good video for us then was like 3,000 total views. So we tripled that in a day with our new style and format.
So that's how BS Media Productions really got started. From that, we were able to get a few sponsors who saw the video quality and thought it was cool and we decided we needed a place to house our content and that is how OH.Report was created. I have to give 100% credit to my wife. I tried to design a website for probably two months and did not do very well at it. She built it from the ground up in a couple of weeks and we have added to it ever since. We launched it in March of 2018.
JF: What I love about this is it is a family thing so you guys really take pride in what you do. You put in a ton of effort and a ton of time because this is your livelihood; this is how you make a living. It has to take a lot of passion.
Jori Skowronski: Ultimately, it was Brian's dream to do something in sports, so when he brought this to the table, of course, I was a little worried because I didn't know everything that had to go into it. Once we got it started and saw the feedback we were getting, it was something that I saw was very popular and people loved the kind of sports videos we were bringing to them. The students love seeing us now.
That first year, it was different than what it is now. That first year, you have a camera and you are holding that thing right over coaches in the huddle and at first, the coaches were looking at us like, "What are you doing?" So first, it was all him going out and doing all the work and was spending all of his Friday nights staying up to 5 a.m., which he still does, but I saw his passion for it. I did the website, which was a challenge for me to even start it, but once I got into the flow of things, it turned into something we both wanted to see succeed, which fuels our passion.
Our passion also comes from the community. We see the growth we have achieved with this and how happy the community is with what we do. Now I am doing this full-time and now I cannot wait for football season. I told him before, I would never do football because it was too cold. Last year was my first year doing football and I cannot wait to get started.
BS: She told me unequivocally that she was not going to cover any football games. She had zero interest. Then, Week 1 of the season, I had someone who could not show up and film for us so I told her I had a pretty good game. It was Norwalk at Mansfield Senior at Arlin Field if you want to go check it out.
JF: I think I saw you there! (Laughs)
JS: Yes, you did!
BS: She was like, "OK, I'll give it a whirl." And even though it was stressful and she didn't 100% do a great job. (Laughs) So on Sunday, she came up to me and told me football really was cool and how much fun it was to be a part of that. By the end of the season, she was super-addicted and when football ended and you have that feeling that a part of you just died, she felt that. I think it was super cool to see that.
JS: I am still learning. He taught me the camera work and how to work our editing programs. I don't write stories because I am not a journalist; that is his job. (Laughs) But I love it. I love seeing the progress we made as a family. Our 11-year old did nine questions with a 9-year old a couple years ago.
JF: I did see that. That was super cool!
JS: We try to get the kids involved with it, too. It is also nice to have a space where we can bring the family down to or we can work from home. We usually take our kids with us to events if we need to so it is nice to be able to work together. It is sometimes stressful. But I learned everything from him and I am excited and happy to continue on.
JF: That is some high praise for you because she does a great job.
BS: When I hear people say they taught someone everything they know, that is true with Jori because until March of last year, she was working at a job she had for five or six years, I had to pluck her out of that job so she could help with this business. I told her I could hire someone full-time or she could come try her hand at it with no knowledge base, period. Now, she is a budding superstar at video editing. It has worked out for both of us. By the next sports season, she will probably be our No. 2 video editor.
JF: So what is the future like? What do you envision for OH.Report and BS Media? What do you see for your future?
BS: So I have big, big dreams. What we are doing in North Central Ohio is we are looking to definitely expand. My big picture goal is to be all across the state. We are trying to cast our web just a little bit more each sports season. The endgame we want is we want to be the sports video headquarters for the state of Ohio. If you want to see what is going on in Northwest Ohio and you want some Toledo highlights, go to OH.Report. You want to know what is going on in down Southeast Ohio, go to OH.Report.
Eventually, we want to have satellite locations in different cities. I have big dreams for shows that we can do where we can combine all of our footage into one, beautiful football, basketball or soccer type show. We are still in the baby stages. I am also in education. I taught at a high school a couple years ago and a college professor at NC State, so we would like to do a school, too, for broadcasting.
We want to teach people who are trying to break into sports journalism, the art of shooting, editing and writing stories. We have big dreams. I made the name of our company, OH.Report, broad so we didn't pin ourselves into a box like some companies. I wanted to leave the name broad so just in case something does happen, we can take that next step. That is my vision, but I know Jori has some of her own goals.
JS: I am all in with him. Just this last sports season, I realized that people know us here in Richland County. While we need to continue to cover this area like we always do, maybe we do need to expand. We need to get on the outskirts of Richland County and expand our name so that was when we started covering Upper Sandusky, Northmor and East Knox. We love you East Knox! So now that we have expanded to those areas as well, we need to expand even more this next year. Seeing the love we get when we arrive at a basketball or football game, wearing the OH.Report logo, we love that.
JF: It is addicting. And you already have a passion for it, but the gratitude solidifies your reasoning for doing what you do. It is all about promoting these kids.
JS: Exactly. It is all about the community and kids.
JF: All right guys. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me downtown. This is a very cool spot. I love it right here on the corner of Diamond and Fifth. Thanks guys!
To hear the complete conversation, listen to Episode 2 of the Jake's Take Sports Podcast at MansfieldNewsJournal.com and hear how Brian and Jori found themselves in Ohio from Colorado and how they are dealing with no sports during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Twitter: @JakeFurr11