If, as they say, the future belongs to the young then the 40 people under 40 who Blank Slate Media is honoring should instill confidence in all of us who live or work in Nassau County.
The 40 that we have selected have achieved success in a wide range of fields and hold many different positions.
But they are united by their education, imagination to create and commitment to others in this community.
They will need these qualities at a time when the world faces unprecedented change and unprecedented challenges from political upheaval to climate change.
The advent of artificial intelligence is poised to reshape the world in ways we can’t imagine but will soon experience.
These changes hold the possibility of great good and great harm. It will be up to our leaders in government and business to determine which.
Having grown up in a time of great technological change, our 40 under 40 are well positioned to adapt to the new changes ahead of us and hopefully steer them in the right position.
They are already working hard to change policy, support the less fortunate, advocate for your health, fight for your rights and help build a better Nassau County.
I can appreciate the challenges that lie ahead for our honorees,, having begun as a young reporter working on an electric typewriter in 1974.
I soon graduated to a main frame computer at the Daily Record in Morristown, N.J. shortly after stories from two reporters at the Washington Post helped bring down a corrupt president. At the time, daily newspapers were flourishing across the country.
I would later move on to the Post-Standard in Syracuse and the Kansas City Star, where I received state and national awards as well as a Pulitzer Prize-nomination for investigative stories on political corruption and wrongdoing by bankers and developers.
Having had success as a reporter and editor and seeing a need in the community, I decided at age 37 to purchase three weekly newspapers in Queens believing that good journalism would be good business.
I would grow the group to 16 award-winning papers covering all of Queens. And then sell them News Corp. in 2006.
By then, the internet had dramatically changed the media landscape, forcing many daily and weekly newspapers to close – sadly a trend that continues to this day.
Undeterred, I would start all over by purchasing the Great Neck News, the New Hyde Park Herald Courier and the Williston Times.
But to succeed I had to make changes.
This included operating in the cloud, an active website that allowed us to publish daily as well as weekly, a partnership with the Hearst Corp. to allow us offer a full range of digital services and events like the one we are hosting to honor this group.
In short, I learned that to succeed you need to be open-minded and willing to learn new things, to not be afraid of the unknown and to always look ahead without being stopped by the inevitable mistakes you will make.
That’s what I see in Blank Slate Media’s 40 under 40. A group of passionate people who have invested in their careers without compromising their standards and values.
The stories of who they are and what they have accomplished, in and out of the work place, are found in this special section.
I hope their talent, drive and commitment to excellence will inspire confidence that the future of Nassau County is bright.
I offer my congratulations to all the honorees for recognition that is well deserved.

Steven Blank
Publisher, Blank Slate Media