About The Long Version

Hi and thanks for checking out the blog.

My name is Doug Long, and I spent nearly 15 years as a broadcast news journalist, primary anchor, investigative reporter, and news director for three of those 15 years.  I graduated from Brigham Young University where I earned a BA in Communications with an emphasis in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Chinese. I spent a brief time in the Salt Lake City market, paid my dues in Idaho Falls, Idaho and completed my career in the great state of Georgia.

I left the broadcast news industry in 2005 with mixed emotions.  I always wanted to make a difference for the better and inform people of the important issues of the day while keeping government bodies and those who claim to serve the public, honest. But the news industry shifted and changed and became, in my mind, a very different medium than when I began my career in 1990.  Opinion was often getting mixed with facts and being reported as news, sales departments increasingly expected to have an editorial voice in the newsroom. “We can’t be exposing the crooked service department at the local car dealership! They spend a lot of money advertising with our station…” I saw a dominating bias on the national network level creeping into local news effecting how news stories were being chosen and reported. Those concerns and the desire to move my family back home to the state of Utah culminated in the decision to leave the broadcast news industry. So I retired early. But it was still way too early to retire…

For a couple of years, after leaving the news business, I was a public speaker and trainer, teaching people how to take their brick and mortar businesses to the internet. This was 2005 when people were finally warming up to the idea of using a credit card online.  I had the wonderful opportunity to travel around the world teaching and training thousands of people how to build an online business and take their wares to the global market.

But two years of being on the road and in hotel rooms 2 to 3 weeks a month wore me out. A friend I had worked with was starting a new SAAS company providing tech to the direct sales industry. I joined him as VP of Business Development where I helped conceptualize and create new products to enhance the marketing efforts of those engaged in the direct sales and network marketing profession. I did that for another 15-plus years by helping build two start ups in the technology sector supplying online business tools to millions of self-employed business owners.

I’ve written training books and manuals for the direct sales industry and most recently started my own business by tapped into my broadcast media experience narrating and producing video training and educational courses for many well known companies in this same space. I’ve also appeared on stage to do live training at corporate conventions and events for my clients.

The Long Version is simply a place to muse about the talk of the times and drop my unique perspective into an ocean of view points. In truth, I’m still very much a news-aholic and enjoy being on the Op-Ed side of sharing current events.

Thanks for visiting. If you like what you see, please share it with others and let’s broaden the conversation.

All the Best!