The Morey Story

It was a different time and a very different company. Ronald Morey started The Morey Organization (TMO) in 1987 to hold the license for a Class-A FM frequency located in Queens, New York. At the time, the frequency was home to the self-proclaimed “World Famous WLIR” on 92.7 FM. For the uninitiated, WLIR was the country’s first alternative rock station—or “New Wave” as it was called back then. Duran Duran, The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths. Later, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, No Doubt. WLIR was more than a radio station; it was a lifestyle.

The last applicant standing, Ron Morey was awarded the license after a lengthy process. In December 1987, he took ownership of the frequency, though the call letters WLIR were no longer available. Thus, a new era began as WDRE. Same frequency, same music, same DJs, and the same commitment to breaking alternative music.

Throughout the next 15 years, the company would acquire additional radio stations in Albany, Philadelphia, and across Long Island. As it expanded, so too did its interest in the music industry. From 1999 to 2004, TMO owned and operated The Vanderbilt music and event facility, and a radio syndication company that broadcast the WDRE frequency to several radio stations nationwide.

Jed Morey founded Morey Publishing in 2002 to launch The Long Island Press, an alternative newspaper to complement WDRE. The Press was essentially the Village Voice of Long Island—an alternative to the mainstream media. Though it was a completely different business model, the spirit was essentially the same: us against the world, breaking new talent, take no prisoners. It only made sense that the alternative radio company of record in New York would have an alternative publication.

Cell phones and social media hadn’t yet taken over—people still read newspapers and listened to the radio. All was right and well in the world.

In 2004, The Morey Organization divested the radio division. By then, all that was left was the Long Island Press. Throughout the next several years, the Press would win hundreds of awards and become the conscience of Long Island and the region. The Press team was fearless and relentless. We questioned authority, challenged conventional wisdom, and spoke truth to power.

Our investigative journalism had thrown corrupt politicians and police officials out of power, shed light on (and helped remedy) environmental disasters, given voice to victims of abuse and addiction, and so much more.

The core discipline and values that defined our work became part of our DNA, and would ultimately prevent our demise. Our ethos and commitment to inspiring positive change in the public good reverberates throughout our business to this day. 

We had the privilege of publishing the Long Island Press for 15 years. What began as an alternative weekly in print eventually grew to an online news source welcoming more than 2 million unique readers per year. During our tenure, we earned more than 400 local, regional, and national awards, and employed a staff of veteran writers routinely regarded as the finest on Long Island and the region.

With the sea change in advertising and publishing ushered in by the internet and free online content, the world shifted from information scarcity to ubiquity—and we recognized we had to foresight, incredible talent, and drive to adapt, and excel, along with it.

We built up great equity in our marketplace, were trusted, and our relationships were deep and widespread. The fact we employed the very best designers and writers on Long Island meant we could expand our expertise and growth model to additionally provide outstanding web design and extraordinary writing for businesses and organizations sharing our mission of wielding positive impact in the public good, through high-quality products and services.

Our writing set us apart from the competition in the marketplace, and journalism training was our secret weapon. 

There were three core components of translating and maximizing our collective talents and expertise to spark meaningful impact via killer web design and content creation.

1. HubSpot

Founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah back in 2006, HubSpot coined the term “Inbound Marketing”—the methodology of attracting, engaging, and delighting consumers through quality content that ranks high on search engine results pages (SERPs), a key fundamental to search engine optimization (SEO). The now-leading marketing, sales, and customer service platform solves several core issues for web designers and companies, particularly the ability to house several tools in one place, automate previously manual best practices, and provide incredibly meticulous analytics.

Since HubSpot is essentially a content platform on steroids, it was and remains a natural fit for our core skill set. Its automation enables us to focus on producing quality content, first and foremost. We fulfill critical marketing needs for our clients at a fraction of what it would cost them to do it on their own! Our adoption of HubSpot has made us better developers and more efficient content producers, while enabling us to truly help our clients and partners grow for good! (We'll get to that last critical detail in just a moment.) 

2. News Beat

By 2017, we were fully committed to the world of digital marketing and the agency had grown dramatically. We made the difficult decision to sell the Long Island Press to a publisher in Queens with whom we enjoyed a long-standing relationship.

Knowing our baby was in good hands and was given new life by a capable local publisher, we recruited young, hungry writers who came up on the marketing side of the business. Under the guidance and training of our editor in chief, Christopher Twarowski, these writers blossomed, and the ethos, ethics, and electricity of journalism surged through their content.

We also launched News Beat—further channeling the ferocity, fury, and passion of hard-hitting journalism in the public good into a meaningful force for change. 

News Beat is a multi-award-winning social justice podcast and independent news outlet that shines a much-needed light on critical issues underreported and ignored by the mainstream media, through a unique and powerful melding of unapologetically fearless journalism and original verses performed by independent hip-hop artists.

Civil liberties abuses, America's mass incarceration crisis and never-ending perpetual wars on drugs and terror, press freedoms and lesser-known histories stripped from history books—we cover it all.

News Beat is the heart that pumps blood through our system. It’s who we are, and gives us greater purpose. The editors of News Beat work closely with our content developers to guide, train, and assist them. It's also at the heart of our tagline "Grow For Good™," which has a dual meaning: For Good, meaning forever. And For Good, meaning to do good in the world. We believe that companies can be mission-oriented and profitable, so we choose to fund this social justice endeavor as part of our commitment to the greater social fabric. 

3. Culture Code

Who are we? What do we do? Who do we do it for? Why do we do it? Inspired by HubSpot’s culture code, our team set out to answer a few key questions about themselves, our company, and our collective future. Several work sessions resulted in our Culture Code, a living, ever-evolving document guiding our journey and informing our hiring and business development practices.

These discussions also sparked a name change. The team decided “publishing” was limiting and anachronistic. Thus, Morey Creative Studios was born, to more accurately reflect our journey and key goals. It is a reflection of who we are, and clearly delineates the kind of clients and employees we wish to recruit and retain. In both cases, they must share our value system and adopt our culture of kindness, hunger, empathy, and accountability.

We could go on and on about the code and the process, but viewing the deck itself is the best way to learn about who we are and what we stand for. (Remember, it's a living, breathing thing, and thus will continue to evolve along with our team!)

And so we built. We sold the Press, doubled down on our core strengths, and began expanding our horizons, our services, and our client base.

As writers, we were fortunate to work with designers who shared our level of commitment to great journalism and possessed incomparable talent in the marketplace. One after another, the Island’s foremost brands began turning to us for their digital needs. Throughout the past several years, more and more companies have taken notice, and we've expanded our reach throughout New York, other regions of the country, and internationally!

Today we have clients from all over the world as a Diamond HubSpot Partner Agency specializing in B2B inbound marketing, content development, digital design, sales enablement, CRM, CMS, accessibility, and podcast production. In 2018, we opened our first satellite office in Philadelphia.

Our roster is full of growth-oriented companies and indispensable partners, and we continue to add highly skilled marketers to our team and attract larger clients. We work diligently to add internal capabilities, strengthen our knowledge of HubSpot’s expanding platform, and adapt quickly to digital marketing trends. Establishing robust processes flexible enough to adjust to market and algorithm changes has become an obsession.

Leveraging HubSpot's robust platform to help our clients grow their businesses is the name of the game now. We help our clients develop long-term growth strategies so they can do more good in the world. Thus, our tagline: Grow for Good™.

We remain true to the values and principles that drove our company from its very beginnings, and we are committed to making this world a better place, one client at a time. 

Key elements of this are improving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and enhancing digital accessibility.

Along with all things inbound, sales, and HubSpot, we specialize in Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standards and digital diversity and inclusion initiatives to help clients increase market share, reduce liabilities, build trust among their customers—and make the internet more accessible and more inclusive, for all. 

In alignment with this mission, we are a proud Founding Partner of InclusionHub, a searchable online service directory and database, and digital inclusion community; we produce another podcast called Grow For Good™ highlighting mission-oriented companies creating products and services that benefit society; and we have embarked on a journey to achieve B Corp certification—a distinction, as stated on its site, distinguishing "businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose."

We hope you will join us.