ATHENS, Texas – Greg Gerber, the founder of the RV industry website RV Daily Report, will return as owner and editor after selling the business in July 2017 to Terry and Evada Cooper. The Coopers were new to publishing and were unable to retain many of Gerber’s advertisers or readers, or build its audience.
Gerber met with the Coopers recently to discuss the website’s future. “It quickly became apparent that Greg needed to return to the helm and guide its direction,” said Evada Cooper. “He really does have a passion for the industry and lifestyle. He has a lot of ideas and the best way for him to implement them is by controlling RV Daily Report.”
Many RVtravel.com readers are familiar with Gerber and were disappointed when he departed. At the helm of RV Daily Report, he was one of only a few RV journalists who wrote honestly about tough topics, not always flattering to the industry. RVtravel.com often reprinted his editorials, which were popular with its readers.
Gerber said he was looking forward to climbing back into the editor’s seat. “The RV industry is comprised of thousands of incredible people, each with stories to share,” he explained. “I’m planning to tweak RV Daily Report’s coverage to make it more like a small-town newspaper. We’ll report on the people in the community as well as the news of the day.”
Gerber said he also intends to directly embrace the consumer market with more content, and the weekly edition will be devoted entirely to news and information of interest to people who own and use recreation vehicles.
The weekday newsletters will still focus on industry news, but the weekend editions will focus on consumer-related topics.
“I’ll still include business management stories, product information, press releases, etc., in the daily newsletters,” said Gerber. “However, because there are a lot of wonderful people involved in the RV industry, I’ll be zeroing in on those features.”
This is welcome news. I’m especially looking forward to the return of the opening rants (and I use that term as a compliment, because I love a good rant if the target has earned it) at the beginning of his weekly RV Industry News podcasts.
When Greg announced he’d been “asked” to eliminate those, it was clear to me that the new owners were, to be charitable, unfamiliar with Greg’s audience, Greg himself, and why so many of us have followed his work for so long.
Best to you, Greg, for great success in your “new” venture.
When Greg sold out , that newsletter became nothing more than a reposting of RV industry press releases. Not one word of negativity or criticism of the industry.
It will be interesting to see how this site evolves. As one may recall, it was just shortly after Forest River threatened to sue Gerber after he published his in-depth series on the disgusting state of RV manufacturering that he sold out. So it will be interesting to see if Gerber still remains intimidated by the Forest River bullies.
I’d like to hear “the rest of the story”. Did FR actually sue Gerber? If so, what was the outcome?
This is good news. The report was becoming nothing but rehashed dribble. I used to keep deleting it from my inbox and was about to drop it altogether, but I will wait and see if it becomes relevant again. Good luck, Greg, nice to hear you’re coming back.
This is good news, I unsubscribed from the Daily Report when they started proselytizing to me.