Zennie62Media CEO Zennie Abraham recounts his time: a generation reporting and innovating the news in the public eye.

OAKLAND, CA, US, January 29, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- On October 16th, 2023, Zennie Abraham, Founder and CEO of Zennie62Media, Inc., creator of the Zennie62 YouTube Channel, and builder of The Oakland News Now Blog, will officially celebrate 30 years as a public figure, reporting the news primarily in Oakland. It was October 16th, 1993 when Zennie's first newspaper column, called “Zennie Abraham' On The Economy”, launched in the pages of The Montclarion, a small publication distributed in the Oakland, California hills.

“It was notable because I was the first black columnist they ever had,” Zennie recalls. “Also, my background wasn't journalism, but city planning. I was fresh from an internship with the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, had graduated from Cal's Master of City Planning Program, and served on the Alameda Base Reuse Committee, thanks to Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, who asked me to sit on it.”

Zennie wanted to write about economic development, so his friend Amalia Egri suggested he apply to write a column with either the Oakland Tribune and The Montclarion. The Trib said no, but Chris Treadway, then the Montclarion Editor, said he would give him a crucible within which to learn the craft of writing. By 1994, Zennie tied with Oakland Tribune's Peggy Stinette for most popular Oakland Columnist. Peggy gave me the best advise: “A columnist is not effective unless they're angry about something.” Too true.

At the The Montclarion, Zennie shined a light on many Oaklanders and even managed to break some stories. One of them, according to then Oakland Tribune Sports Writer Monte Poole, was breaking the story of the return of the Raiders to Oakland. Basically, The Montclarion gig got Zennie the specially-designed position of Economic Advisor to Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris.

Zennie was in an oversight-and-report back role on “everything from redevelopment to the Raiders”. So, he was both that and Montclarion Columnist (with the backing of Treadway) for 1996, until Hills Newspaper Publisher Warren “Chip” Brown disliked that he was writing for the Strong Mayor proposal called “Measure F” that Elihu wanted. Moreover, Hills Newspaper blocked his story on author Gary Webb's claim that the CIA was running drugs through Oakland to finance the Contras.

But that didn't stop Zennie's work for Mayor Harris. In 1996, Zennie created a way for the Oakland Redevelopment Agency to gain $4 billion, but it was rejected. Raiders Exec Al LoCasale tabbed him for a special project: restarting the 49ers / Raiders Preseason Game. That was how he came to know the man the NFL was groming to be Commissioner: Roger Goodell and the league's Government Affairs VP Joe Browne. In 1997, Zennie formed The Oakland Downtown Coalition to revive the stalled 14th and Broadway Bus Stop. He also helped a good number of Oakland non-profits raise money for their projects.

After Elihu Harris finished his successful two-terms as Oakland Mayor, Zennie was put in charge of bringing the Super Bowl to Oakland. To that end, he formed what is still Oakland's only sports commission: the Oakland Alameda County Sports Commission.

Given no chance and battling The City of Oakland's chronic desire to fail, The Oakland Super Bowl XXXIX Bidding Committee got Oakland to the place of one of three finalists against Jacksonville and Miami. Then Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, who didn't really support the effort at first, started to when Zennie got huge publicity. At the NFL Owners Meeting, Brown gave it his all. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough: Jacksonville won the 2005 Super Bowl on the third ballot. Still, Zennie is proud of the SF Bay Area hotel managers and friends like sports agent Leigh Steinberg, sports writers Mike Silver and Mr. Poole, and Raiders CEO Amy Trask who helped.

In 2002, Zennie created his first tech startup, Sports Business Simulations, around a system dynamics game about the Oakland Athletics. Thanks to a $25,000 investment from Mark Anthony Jones, it was off and running in 2003. Zennie discovered blogging to bring traffic to the site, and that became a series of blogs with the main ones called “Oakland Focus” and “Zennie's Zeitgeist”.

In “Oakland Focus”, Zennie created Oakland's first news blog. Then, in 2004, the NFL's Joe Browne invited Zennie to cover the 2005 NFL Draft in New York City. In 2006, Zennie was the first to cover the NFL Draft on site with a YouTube Channel. In 2007, Zennie partnered with Ustream to livestream the NFL Draft on site, another first. In all, Zennie62 YouTube has more on-site NFL Draft YouTube videos than any other single person or media outlet. He's also interviewed more Oaklanders running for office than any person or media outlet on YouTube.

In 2007, Zennie was on the CNN / YouTube Democratic Debate. His “coin question” lead to national TV appearances on CNN. In 2008, Zennie was invited to be one of the first 128 bloggers ever to cover the Democratic National Convention, where Barack Obama was voted first black Democratic Nominee for President. The rest is history.

In 2010, Zennie created the Zennie62Media brand, and a family of bloggers: Nikky Raney, Melissa Rubin, Keith Dobkowski, Bill Carroll, Richard Haick, Vinny Lospinuso, Donald Richardson, Joseph Armendariz, and Anthony Carrillo, mark the most active vloggers. Note, vloggers: the bloggers transformed to vloggers, and formed the basis for what became Zennie62Media, Inc.

Since 2010, Zennie62Media has annually covered The NFL Draft, CES Las Vegas, San Diego Comic Con, TechCrunch Disrupt, The Academy Awards, Night of 100 Stars Oscars Party, and is on The White House Press List.

Zennie62Media, Inc. is a Delaware C-Corporation borne December 17th, 2019. Zennie built it because he was already doing content development and reputation work for clients, but believed a better way to fund it was to set it up as a startup company that could be bought or taken public.

Growing Zennie62Media, Inc. network of news blogs and vlogs is the next phase of this journey through Zennie's public life. Zennie62Media, Inc is seeking investors. Join.

Zenophon Abraham
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Zennie Abraham's Zennie62 YouTube Channel at the 2006 NFL Draft

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