Publisher, Greenbrier Valley Quarterly
by Jeremy Jarrell
If you add education, determination and good instincts together, you have Josh Baldwin. The 29-year-old publisher of Greenbrier Valley Quarterly knows that life is what you make of it, and he has taken his own set of creative, entrepreneurial and leadership skills to form a successful publication that represents his passion for preserving the rich cultural heritage of Southern West Virginia.
The Huntington native taught business English to military and corporate representatives in Prague for a year after graduating from Marshall University with a bachelor’s degree in English. He returned to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in literature from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His thesis subject, focusing on the “cultural sense of place in Southern West Virginia,” would inspire him to return to the Mountain State and make a difference.
“Just knowing that I could have gone and worked in tourism or whatever as long as I was making a contribution would have made me happy. With multiple degrees in English, it seems you get locked into the career path of professional student—or professor. I decided to carve my own path (in magazine publishing), which is something I have always done,” he explains.
Returning to West Virginia in 2005 with a business plan and business loan but lacking publishing experience, Baldwin says he had his own concerns. “I had to wonder how many issues I could publish before I went broke,” he says. “It seems to have worked out.”
He’s right. In its first year of publication, Greenbrier Valley Quarterly had only 97 subscribers—consisting mostly of his family in West Virginia—but now the magazine averages that many subscriptions per month. Baldwin says the magazine’s continued success is due in great part to his ability to develop a talented staff and his emphasis on the content.
“One of my goals with the magazine is to not only make sure the people benefit from it but the place itself benefits as well,” says Baldwin. “You become concerned that in a rapidly growing place like Greenbrier Valley that the growth doesn’t trample what makes it special in the first place. It’s very important that as you encourage economic growth you don’t change the intangibles that make it somewhere people care about,” he says.
Not only does Baldwin focus the magazine on encouraging the development of the Greenbrier Valley area, but he contributes personal time to the cause. An adjunct English professor at New River Community and Technical College, he serves on an internal image subcommittee of West Virginia: A Vision Shared. He is also co-chair of the Great Expectations Capital Campaign, an effort to repay the construction loan for the new Greenbrier County Public Library in Lewisburg where he currently serves on the board of trustees.
“Libraries are probably one of the most important institutions of any place or community. They represent democracy of knowledge and free access to that knowledge and information,” he says of his efforts. “My parents taught me at a young age to give back in some way. They were continually involved in helping the community and there is a big philanthropic spirit here in the Greenbrier Valley that kind of rubs off on you.”
Not that there hasn’t been personal challenges along the way. Baldwin was diagnosed with testicular cancer last year, but it isn’t something that defines him. “It’s just a hurdle,” he explains. “It’s a little scarier than others but you treat it the same, you jump over it.”
Baldwin is quick to mention that no hurdle is leapt alone in life. His father, Gary Baldwin, was a devoted and hard-working family man and is an inspiration to the younger Baldwin. His wife Mary and daughter Stella are his continual motivation. Greenbrier Valley Quarterly employees Erica Bell, graphic designer, Eric Fritzius, writer/editor and others continue to be instrumental in his success, he says.
“I’m not a business person. I’m a people person,” he explaines. “I’m a big believer that success is recognizing your own deficiencies and surrounding yourself with the right people to fill those gaps. If success is not the culmination and combination of all your past experiences and learning from what you have done right and done wrong, then I am not sure what it is.”
Photography by Rick Lee
