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Writer's pictureSally Maeng

Running The Permanent Rain Press

Chloe and Natalie's story

 

Today, Chloe and Natalie are co-founders of The Permanent Rain Press, a news and interview outlet focused on Vancouver's music scene.


But when they were in high school, they wrote for other people's blogs and their school newspaper. These twin sisters loved communications, particularly on topics related to music and art. In grade 11, Chloe learned that Chris Zylka was in town filming The Secret Circle. She bravely sent a well-crafted email to his manager asking if Chris would be interested in conducting a phone interview for a local high school newspaper.


His manager was immensely impressed with Chloe's email that he set up a surprise for her. One day in class, a teacher instructed Chloe to head to the library. There was Chris Zylka along with a journalist and photographer from the city's newspaper! Instead of conducting a phone interview, Chloe conversed with Chris face-to-face. They featured this meeting in different local newspapers, including The Province.


This encounter led Chloe and Natalie to launch their own media platform. They started with a Tumblr page. They were proud and excited to call something their own and have complete creative freedom.


Fast forward to today, The Permanent Rain Press is an independent website that publishes content with a team of fantastic volunteer writers and photographers. The platform's name, The Permanent Rain Press, reflects how the team is based in rainy Vancouver. Their goal is to support the city's music scene, but they also cover sports and acting. You should check out their complete list of interviews on their website!


In addition to being in awe of the twin sisters' success, I am intrigued The Permanent Rain Press continues to be their passion project than a full-time job. Their only income comes from advertisements on their YouTube video interviews.


The primary reason for this is due to practicality. While Chloe and Natalie enjoyed writing in high school, journalism and media are competitive industries; its path to success is difficult. Besides, the sisters are not entirely comfortable with being in front of the camera. This will have been a barrier if they have gone to the broadcasting route. They prefer building the brand as an outlet instead of as individuals.


Furthermore, they wanted to provide free content versus something like a subscription program. The twin sisters didn't want to feel burdened, pressured, and agitated in monetizing their passion. So they pursued other careers and continued building The Permanent Rain Press as a hobby.



So Chloe works for the federal government, and Natalie works in health care. Having this boundary between their jobs and passion encourages more creativity and excitement towards their side project. They are very pleased with this arrangement.


The Permanent Rain Press is an intricate passion project. It requires time to find and interview guests, create content, update the website, coordinate their volunteers, and more.


What keeps them going is that Chloe and Natalie are passionate about providing a platform to celebrate local talent and artists. They are pumped when they get to interview musicians and actors! It's an exciting opportunity! They love this culture so much, they ardently want to share it with others.


We live in a culture where people are praised for turning their passions into income-generating careers. While that's highly convenient, sometimes it's better to keep it as a hobby. It prevents your passion from being a chore and allows it to remain as, well, your passion!


Good luck with your passion projects, and feel free to contact us if you want to share about it on our platform, The Passion Collective!

 

To contact Chloe and Natalie and learn more about this story, follow @prpress on Instagram.

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