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Journalism-Minded: WaPo Editor Bart Schaneman on Living and Working in Seoul, Korea and His Latest Book, 'The Pot Job'
Journalism-Minded: WaPo Editor Bart Schaneman on Living and Working in Seoul, Korea and His Latest Book, 'The Pot Job'
By Ricardo Baca — Founder & CEO, Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency Bart Schaneman isn’t just another reporter who…
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Our Agency is Hiring a PR Director
Our Agency is Hiring a PR Director
Good morning, friends. Hope you're fully prepped for a lovely holiday and some well-deserved time off.
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I recently interviewed Whoopi Goldberg to talk cannabis and how it helps some women with dysmenorrhea (aka severe, 'labor-like' menstrual cramps)
I recently interviewed Whoopi Goldberg to talk cannabis and how it helps some women with dysmenorrhea (aka severe, 'labor-like' menstrual cramps)
Editor's note: Read the entire interview at The Cannabist. By Ricardo Baca, The Cannabist Whoopi Goldberg wants to talk…
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Ricardo Baca posted thisIn August I spent a week here writing about a new library in Thornton, Colo. Since then, massive media outlets have followed: PEOPLE Magazine | PEOPLE.com. USA TODAY. Travel + Leisure Co. Outside. Heck, Colorado Public Radio ran another segment this morning. And the number that matters more than any of those: 50,000 people have walked through the doors of Anythink Libraries' Nature Library since Aug. 8. Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® is Anythink's agency of record, and this campaign lives in our #CivicAndCommunity practice, the work we do for institutions whose entire value rests on public trust. Farmers markets. Universities. Libraries. Here's why this coverage looks the way it does. The easy pitch was always the building. It's a beautiful building, and pitching it would have failed. Editors get dozens of architecture announcements a week and assign almost none. So we led with access instead. Adams County, Colo., has more than 550,000 residents. Nearly 10% live in poverty. Plenty of families there were priced out of Denver, and the mountains are 45 minutes and a working vehicle away. I should know. I grew up pretty poor in Adams County, Colo. As Anythink branch manager Maria Mayo-Peaseley told USA TODAY, a lot of kids in Thornton have never been to the mountains at all. So Anythink put the prairie next door, made it free, and started lending out the gear. Snowshoes, hammocks, wildlife cameras, binoculars, bird-watching kits, telescopes. 550 items at opening, headed for 1,500. Maria told USA TODAY about a customer who pointed at a bear bag and asked what it was. She'd never been camping. They talked through it, and Maria helped her book a campsite. That's the whole story. Not the square footage. That. Anythink built this. A decade of work, hundreds of people, and an executive director in Mark Fink JD MPA MLIS who wouldn't scale back the ambition, who brought Indigenous leaders into the design process early and said publicly that it wasn't always smooth and there were lessons learned. Our job was making sure a first-of-its-kind American institution in a Denver suburb got seen by the whole country instead of getting filed under Regional News. To Mark, RyAnne Scott, Maria, the board, the Foundation and the Indigenous Advisory Council: thank you for trusting us with it. It has been a legitimate honor to help you introduce this singular library to the world, and I know that my colleagues (Casey included) agree. And if you're in Colorado, what are you waiting for? GO: 6811 E. 136th Ave., Thornton. Free. ('Cos it's a library!) https://lnkd.in/gfFdp2XW
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Ricardo Baca shared thisWe recorded this podcast in my backyard. Fitting, since my backyard is the one place Colorado says I can't grow a plant. Ben and I went deep on homegrow: why legalization without it is incomplete, why home growers deserve access to testing, and why our outdoor ban still reads like it was written in 2014. I also finally tell the story of the day 13 cops showed up at my house. Ben comes at cannabis the way a reporter does, and it made for one of my favorite conversations in a long time. Season 3 of The Hobby Grow Podcast kicks off Oct. 7, and my ep drops later that month. cc Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency®Ricardo Baca shared thisIn 2013, Ricardo Baca became the world's first cannabis editor at a mainstream daily newspaper. Even if you didn't live in Denver, you knew The Cannabist (I heard about it in Columbia, MO while in J-School at University of Missouri-Columbia). I recently sat down with him in his backyard for The Hobby Grow Podcast. Here are a few things he believes about homegrow that most consumers have never heard: — #1 - Is it full legalization without homegrow? No. In his words, any legalization law that leaves it out is "doing it wrong." — #2 - Home growers should be able to test their own weed. In Colorado, state-licensed labs work with licensees only. It's a closed-loop system. Some other states let regular folks walk in with a sample. — #3 - Colorado's outdoor ban is overdue for a rewrite. You can legally grow at home. Just not in your backyard. He calls it a rule written through a "2014 lens." (A lesson he learned the hard way thanks to 13 cops, but you'll have to listen to the episode for that story.) — #4 - Everyone should grow a plant at least once. Even if you don't consume. It helps you rewrite your own relationship with the plant. — It's humbling to sit down with people I consider friends and peers who are also pioneers in their own right. Ricardo is one of them. And I always appreciate our conversations coming from a shared journalism angle. His episode drops in a few weeks. Season 3 kicks off 10/7. If you're not already subscribed, hit the substack so you don't miss an episode (you can also subscribe on normal podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify if that's your jam).
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Ricardo Baca shared thisTwo Emjays nominations landed this week, and I'm asking for your help with both. Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® is nominated for Agency of the Year. I'm nominated for Content Creator of the Year. Voting is open now, you can vote daily until it closes, and both votes take about 90 seconds. VOTE HERE: https://lnkd.in/dyuicfYz On the agency award. We've won this one twice, and I'm proud of those years. I'm prouder of right now. Grasslands is doing the best work of our decade-long history, and it shows in how this team shows up for clients every single day. We're gelled. We're operating more strategically and more thoughtfully than at any point in our history. I'm goddamn proud of these people. We'll hit 10 years as an agency right around the time the Emjays happen during MJBizCon in December. A decade of building a journalism-minded agency, which is a different animal from what most shops in this category are doing. Our standards come from newsrooms. So does our skepticism, our nose for news, our reporting instinct, our storytelling and our refusal to pitch a story that isn't a story. Ten years in, I still haven't seen anyone else do it quite this way. On the content creator award. Earlier this year I made a decision to quit feeding my Instagram habit and get serious about LinkedIn. This is where I write now, and it's better work because of it. Thank you for reading, for engaging and for making the comments on these posts worth the time. The nomination belongs to that conversation as much as it does to me. It's also an honor to be nominated next to clients, friends, partners and sponsors across both categories. Real work, done by people I respect. Go look at the full list before you vote. Then vote for us. Ninety seconds. I'd be immensely grateful. #GrasslandsAF Emjays #MJBizCon #PublicRelations
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Ricardo Baca shared thisWhen Lenny Berry and the Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit team went looking for someone to moderate this year's CEO panel, they called Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency®. Yesterday afternoon I got to lead that conversation on the main stage in Columbus with four of the most consequential operators in Ohio cannabis. Fabio Salerno of Ohio Green Systems. ADAM THOMARIOS of Klutch Cannabis. Gibran Washington of Ethos Cannabis. Ariane Kirkpatrick of Mavuno of OH. The topic was leading through growth, pressure and change, which is a polite way of describing what Ohio operators are actually doing right now. The state did $684 million in combined sales through mid-July and is on pace to clear last year's $1.09 billion. Unit volume keeps climbing. Prices do not. Flower has been sitting near $6.65 a gram for about a year, down roughly 30% from launch. Canopy is still coming online. SB 56 took effect in March and rewrote the rules on marketing (*ahem*), potency, retail caps, hemp and the social equity provisions voters approved in 2023. We covered everything we could in 45 minutes. The panel moved fast, and these four were smart and generous with what they know. They talked about where the margin went, what they stopped doing, what they predict over the next 18 months, and who gets to own a cannabis business in Ohio now. This is the work Grasslands does. Our cannabis practice has been in Midwestern markets since well before Ohio went adult-use, and we spend our time in rooms like this one because the story of American cannabis is being written in states like Ohio, Michigan and Missouri right now. Thanks to the OCHBS team for building a conference with real substance. It wraps today, and it has been a strong portrait of where this market sits and where it's headed. Good to see so many clients, partners, reporters and conference programmers in Columbus this week. If you're building something in this industry and you need communications people who understand the regulatory reality you operate in, come find me. I'm around through the closing sesh today. #OCHBS #OhioCannabis #ThoughtLeadership #PublicRelations #GrasslandsAF
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Ricardo Baca posted thisMore than 50 global cannabis executives. One riverside patio. Sushi on the water in Lisbon. The Grasslands Supperclub: Lisbon Edition was one of the best nights we've ever hosted at Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency®. The formula stays simple. No pitch, no sales deck, no agenda. We curate the room with real strategy, set the table, and let the people do the rest. And what a room. Company Founders and CEOs. Patient advocates working across continents. Lawyers, investors and finance leaders. A deep bench of operators. We owned that patio all night, first for a networking happy hour that took advantage of a stunning Lisbon sunset, then for a sit-down sushi dinner right on the river. At least five guests found me afterward to say it was one of the most valuable things they did all week. And that's why we do it. Lisbon was the latest stop in the Grasslands 2026 International Networking Series, following Paris, London, Berlin and Bilbao, New Jersey and beyond. Grasslands is a #PR and #Marketing agency operating globally across cannabis, CPG, wellness, longevity and more. We're community builders at heart, and bringing our people together, city after city, is some of the most important work we do. Obrigado to everyone who joined us, including Gustavo Escobar, Natalya Gray, Marika Graham-Woods, Alfredo Pascual, CFA, Ricardo Geada, Lex Pelger, Daniel Añorga Cook, Riccardo Longato and Luis Meirinhos Soares and many others. Where to next?
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Ricardo Baca shared thisMy brother Sean moved to Ílhavo, Portugal earlier this year. He brought his dog, Grace. Last week I went to see the life he built there. Ílhavo is a small, quiet town, a half hour south of Porto and two hours north of Lisbon by train. Sean is happy. Over the moon, honestly. Watching him walk me through his streets, his routine, his new normal, I kept thinking about how few people actually do the thing they say they want to do. Congrats, Sean. Big respect for the move. I recognized the decision, because I made a version of it a couple of years ago. I looked at Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® and decided our next chapter was international. Some former colleagues of mine disagreed, but I knew it was the right call. (It definitely was.) Clients in Germany, Thailand, Portugal, the UK and Australia. New regulatory environments, new media markets, new ways of doing business that force you to get better at your job. The bet is paying off. Work takes me overseas now on a regular basis, and the trips keep landing me within reach of family and friends I used to see once every few years. A long weekend in Portugal for business becomes a quick overnight in an ancient fishing town with my brother. Sean moved for the life. I moved the company for the work. We both ended up with a bigger map and more people on it. If you're sitting on a decision like that, personal or professional, the hardest part is the first flight. Obrigado, Sean. See you again soon.
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Ricardo Baca shared thisPortugal exported more than 66,000 kilos of medical cannabis in the first half of this year. Over those same six months, it wrote roughly 5,400 prescriptions at home. I opened our EU-GMP roundtable at PTMC - Portugal Medical Cannabis in Lisbon with those two numbers, in part because they illustrate the WILD (and often misunderstood) role Portugal plays in global cannabis markets today. "The Future of EU-GMP: Building the Next Generation of Cannabis Products & Operations" put some of the sharpest quality and operations minds in Europe on one stage, and I had the pleasure of moderating: 🇵🇹 Riccardo Longato CEO of Clear S.r.l. S.B. 🇵🇹 Luis Meirinhos Soares, GMP and GACP auditor with a quarter century inside the regulator 🇵🇹 José Veracruz, head of QA and Qualified Person at Canna.biz 🇵🇹 Maria Fernanda Villota Noguera, who brought the view from outside the EU looking in We went straight at the hard questions. The cultivation rulebook was rewritten last year, and growing officially became manufacturing. Is the cultivation side ready for that? And the one I was especially excited about: does all this compliance apparatus actually serve patients? Nobody on that stage ducked a question. Rare, and deeply appreciated. Huge credit to Laura Ramos and the CannaReporter® team for programming built on substance. And the room itself: the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, surrounded by centuries-old books stacked floor to ceiling. A noble, stately setting for a global conversation this consequential. Conversations like this one are the core of Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency®’s global cannabis practice. The companies we represent operate across borders, so their stories have to hold up in Lisbon, Berlin, Bogota, London and NYC all at once. Next stop: Columbus, Ohio, for a CEO panel this week. PTMC, I'll see you back in Lisbon in 2027.
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Ricardo Baca shared thisOhio voters legalized cannabis in 2023. The legislature rewrote it with SB 56 this March. Operators have been absorbing it ever since. Next Wednesday I'm moderating "The CEO Panel" at the Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit. I got these executives on a prep call last month, and they are all absolute powerhouses. Gibran Washington, CEO of Ethos Cannabis, runs a multi-state operator and spent part of that call sharing that Ohio is the strongest market his company is in. Ariane Kirkpatrick, CEO of Mavuno of OH, described what Ohio's advertising and financing rules feel like from inside a small business, and it was not flattering. ADAM THOMARIOS, founder and CEO of Klutch Cannabis, started in Akron a while back and built one of the homegrown brands that genuinely runs this state. Fabio Salerno, CEO of Ohio Green Systems, has been processing in his home state for many moons. He'll tell you exactly what happens downstream when there aren't enough cultivators running at capacity. We agreed on one thing before we hung up: no sanitized answers, and disagreement on stage is welcome. (My 24 years as a journalist prepared me to moderate panels like this.) One thing that makes this event unusual is that consumers are in the room alongside operators. Rare for a trade show. I'm writing questions for both. Sept. 23, 1:50–2:35 p.m. Main Stage, Room B, Heart of It All Ballroom. Greater Columbus Convention Center. I'm actually flying direct to Ohio from the EU, where I was speaking at PTMC and hosting 100 executives at The Grasslands Supperclub in Lisbon. It's conference season alright. So proud to see mystery 10-year-old PR and marketing firm Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® leading these important conversations, from Lisbon to Columbus.
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Ricardo Baca shared thisSomething is happening in Colorado cannabis, and I don't think I'm imagining it. I've asked around. Clients, partners, longtime colleagues, people whose read I trust. And we're all noticing the same thing at Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency®, too: after years of sliding sales and grim rooms and a lot of good operators just trying to hang on, this market is waking up. Businesses are performing better. Capital is moving again. Something loosened. Which brings me to Friday. IgniteIt Cannabis is bringing Market Spotlight: Colorado to The Westin Denver Downtown on Friday. One day, 65+ speakers, 300+ attendees. Their own pitch says Colorado doesn't get the love it deserves, and they're not wrong. Look at what's on the agenda. "Show Me the Money: What It Takes to Get Capital Back Into Colorado Cannabis." "Shaping the Shakeout: Buying, Selling, and Surviving Colorado's Consolidation Wave." "Beyond the Honeymoon: Winning Back Colorado's Cannabis Customer." A fireside chat with Dominique M. from the regulator's chair, and another with my good friend Ean Seeb, the governor's special advisor on cannabis and natural medicine. That's not a program somebody writes for a dying market. Let's also say the quiet part. Colorado did this first. First regulated adult-use market in the world. First state to build a real regulatory framework around medical cannabis. Every operator in every state that came after is working off a blueprint that people in this city drew by hand. We've taken our lumps since. We've earned this next chapter. Huge respect to Elliot Lane and Patrick Lane for bringing IgniteIt Inc. to Denver. Working closely with them this year has been a genuine pleasure, and Denver's lucky to have them. I'm still in the EU, and I'm sick about missing it. But Geoff Renstrom, our VP of PR, is there all day and at the reception after. Go find him and say hello. If you work in this industry in this state, you'd be crazy to miss this. Learn something, shake some hands, and enjoy the hell out of it. Elliot, Patrick: welcome back to Denver, friends. Sorry I'm not there to roll out the red carpet, but I know plenty of my partners are, so good luck and enjoy. https://lnkd.in/g4Ht-gTq
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12h
WHOA AN IMPORTANT UPDATE: One more add here, because the USA TODAY story I linked to in this post was on the FRONT PAGE of the newspaper earlier this week. Some context on what a USA Today front page actually means:
-There are 365 of them a year, and every story in America competes for one. This one went to a library in City of Thornton, Coloradodo.
-USA Today reaches all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico, prints at 42 sites worldwide, and anchors the Gannett network, so the story travels into local papers across the country.
-A first-of-its-kind institution in Adams County is now a national story. Well earned, Anythink Libraries.
Ricardo Baca commented on a post
13h
Thanks much, Megan - and heck yes, friends: #VoteGrasslands for #AgencyOfTheYear. We love this industry, this community, and I'm proud to say that we give back to this industry more than most, having produced 50+ networking events across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia over the last decade of business. Appreciate your votes and shares, friends - and thanks again, Megan!
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Ricardo Baca reacted on thisRicardo Baca reacted on thisMuch thanks to Lenny Berry and his entire team for putting on an amazing Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit! I had a great time in Columbus, from the evening reception where I was greeted at the door with an espresso martini, to the Catalyst after party where we got to tour COSI - Center of Science and Industry and meet a couple of celebrities! It brought me a lot of joy catching up with old Ohio friends 💚🌱 It was so much fun moderating the Women in Cannabis panel! Jo Jacobson, Kate Miller, Heather Leitelt, ACBP , and Tiana Arriaga, showed up to a packed house and shared their words of wisdom for the ladies of Ohio cannabis industry. We work in an industry where professional development and mentorship is at a premium, so it was refreshing to learn from their insights and experiences. It was also a learning journey for me; public speaking has always been my Achilles heel, and it was my first time moderating a panel. Luckily, sharing a stage with so many brilliant women made it easier! Dinner with the ladies of cannabis afterwards was such a treat. Huge thank you to Laurie Parfitt and Stella Morrison for organizing and always making everyone feel welcome no matter the city we’re in. I had a blast getting to know everyone and swapping stories. I can’t wait to see everyone again! Fun fact: the leaf on the OH State Buckeye logo is a buckeye plant NOT a cannabis leaf. Lenny Berry Cassie Tomaselli, MBA Madison Aragon Ned Yost Atticus Landa Daniel Bridges Jennifer Makris, MBA Rachel Pell Amy Larson Brooke M. Simmons Lissa Satori Stacy Litke Kristina Dahmann Hirsh Jain Ricardo Baca Andy Hidalgo
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Ricardo Baca reacted on thisRicardo Baca reacted on thisOn Monday, Anythink Libraries' Nature Library made the front page of USA TODAY Co., Inc. Thanks to reporter Phaedra Trethan for sharing our story. Here is the digital version (subscription needed): https://lnkd.in/gS6QE_Cr
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Ricardo Baca reacted on thisRicardo Baca reacted on thisI do not live in Colorado. But the Anythink Libraries in Thorton kinda makes me wish I did. Here's my latest USA TODAY story. https://lnkd.in/gG22CGC7Unique new library features rocks and mud ‒ and some books, tooUnique new library features rocks and mud ‒ and some books, too
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Ricardo Baca reacted on thisRicardo Baca reacted on thisPlease vote for Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® for Agency of the Year in The 2026 Emjays! I'm so honored to be part of this team doing great work in the industry. 💕 I have several other amazing Emjay nominees to shout out, but for now, get in there, sign up, and start getting your daily votes in for Grasslands. Ok, also don't forget our clients at Flower Mill LLC in the Consumer Gear Product of the Year category. 🏆 Maybe if we win I'll get to go back to Vegas for MJBiz this year? Want me there? VOTE FOR GRASSLANDS! Please and thank you. 🙏 Vote here: https://lnkd.in/gsvabxE8
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