On July 3, 2012, I embarked on a journey to take Cigar Coop into the world of 365-day-a-year  publication. Folks who know me know I am big on milestones – and today is a huge one as we commemorate the 2000th consecutive day of publishing original content. This would not have been possible without our sponsors, strategic partners, and most importantly – our audience.  Thank you!

A few months after Cigar Coop launched on August 15, 2010, two industry people told me that Cigar Coop would never survive. The content was rough and the photos were awful. Nonetheless, I felt with a program of continuous improvement the Cigar Coop brand could make it. As that process of continuous improvement evolved, I felt the next step was to go to a daily publication cycle.

We weren’t the first cigar site to do this. I don’t even think we were the second, but I was determined to be one of the first. I believed daily publication would help improve the overall product and was a logical move. The cigar industry might be small, but it is as dynamic as any industry. As Cigar Coop started covering more news, I felt the only way to do it was to go to 365 days a year. It was an added bonus to the plans for continuous improvement.

Along the way, we formed a successful partnership with Stogie Geeks on August 26, 2013.  We brought it to a close earlier this year, but it was a great run. Stogie Geeks rose to become what I felt was the “definitive cigar podcast”.  We soon became the show where we regularly had “industry greats” becoming guests. Two interviews with Jorge Padrón, two interviews with José Seijas is something I am quite proud of. Not only did we grow the podcast, but the Cigar Coop brand grew.

With the growth of Cigar Coop, our next logical step was to become an independent company. We added two brands with the Prime Time Show and Prime Time Special Edition podcasts – which have seen rapid growth in less than nine months. Those podcasts would not have been possible without Aaron Loomis of Developing Palates and Bear Duplisea of #ElOsoFumarTakes.

On March 29th, 2015 we hit the 1,000th consecutive day of publication. I admit, I didn’t originally expect hitting 2,000 days would happen, but today is that day. As I talked about on the 2018 Cigar Year Kickoff I did, 2017 was incredibly challenging with launching a new company, launching new brands, and a challenging IPCPR Trade Show to cover this year. These hurdles could have easily derailed daily publication, but we persisted.

Moving forward, to hit the 3,000th consecutive day on September 18, 2020, might be even more of a challenge. We face potential challenges in terms of regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Cigar Industry. We also have challenges of censorship by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). These challenges could pose serious inhibitors to our ability to continue to bring you quality content.

As we have done from Day 1 on August 15, 2010, we have always and will continue to operate with the philosophy #rumorfree and #teaserfree.

There are those who say Cigar Coop is often too serious – and if that is a shortcoming of Cigar Coop, I say thank you. It’s a shortcoming I’d gladly embrace.