Veteran owned and operated

East of Tampa is owned and operated by John and Danielle Plumstead, who live in FishHawk. John graduated from West Point in 2009, commissioned into the Army, served in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011, and left the service in 2022 as a major. Everything on this site, the newsletter that goes to about five thousand neighbors three times a week, and the ad campaigns we run for local businesses come out of that one household.

Why we say it out loud

Plenty of companies put a flag in the footer and move on. The reason it is on this page is that a real share of the businesses that advertise here are contractors, trades, restoration crews, plumbers and home-service operators, and a lot of them are veterans or hire veterans. When they hand their advertising to somebody, they want to know who that somebody is. This is the answer, in writing, so nobody has to ask.

It also sets expectations about how the work runs. You get a direct line to the owner, not a junior account manager and not a ticket queue. If something is not working we say so on the call instead of burying it in a report. If we are the wrong fit for what you sell, we will tell you that too, and it costs you nothing to find out.

What we actually do

We publish a local newsletter every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, run the East of Tampa social accounts and the high school sports coverage across the county, keep a local business directory, and manage Meta ad campaigns for owners who want their advertising run by somebody who lives here. We serve Brandon, Riverview, Valrico, FishHawk, Lithia, Plant City, Ruskin, Wimauma and Apollo Beach.

The advertising side is at the advertising agency page, and the market-by-market breakdown is at marketing by town.

If you run a veteran-owned business here

Tell us and we will mark your listing in the local directory. It costs nothing, it is not an ad, and it makes it easier for the people around here who go out of their way to hire veteran-owned to actually find you. Send us a note with the business name and we will take care of it.