Hello

Allow me to introduce myself. I am the least-known person in all of residential building who happens to be in a position which carries some attention and more than a bit of responsibility. I am John McManus’ partner in The Builder’s Daily.

John and my careers found their trajectories at the same place, a start-up weekly magazine that popularized coverage of the business side of sports (and likely helped tarnish the escapism of newspaper sports pages across the country). We were a cadre of talented souls who had each found a vessel to extraordinary. We made magic, and it shaped all of our lives.

Our subject was one of passion, and we shared that bond. We fed the audience hunger as we fed our own. The dignity we brought to our purpose gave validation to the obsession. We became “the way.”

Through the years, I’ve applied those principles to some 200 media properties. It’s made a lot of magic and it’s created more than $2 billion of value. And there was one overriding truth to that success:

If your soul can make magic, you can mold it to a strategy. But a strategy can only make magic if it happens upon it in your soul.

Last summer, John McManus’ soul called me, wondering if I knew where it might find a strategy. I said, “Sure, let’s talk about your soul.”

We’d have been here sooner, but there was a lot to cover.

John loves the characters of building, hard and nobody’s fool but with a humanism that comes with making homes and a stature from embracing the weight of such consequence on life. He holds with fascination the minds at work and the innovations in play at every step — and with every skill set — along the building life cycle. He pleads for a future where the industry is stronger for being better, where challenges are faced down and opportunities grown in their place, and the rewards are commensurate with residential building’s contribution to life and living.

In everything we considered, we looked for how we could provide data-driven information and analysis that would motivate a community of solution-seekers, eliminate the barriers to entry, and enable interaction of consequence and meaningful shared experiences.

From there, the strategy was simple: We will build a media world without walls, where seeking solutions is the only credential, engagements have purpose and actions make a difference. We have laid the foundation. Now the real building can begin.

Our pledge is to pour out our souls in the making of magic for you. Our only request is that you come on the carpet ride with us.

My name is Craig Reiss, and it is my honor to meet you and my privilege to serve.