Founders

Corey Friedman  is an award-winning journalist and the former editor and co-publisher of the Independent Register, the alternative newspaper he co-founded and helped finance.

Corey Friedman

He currently works as a reporter at The Gaston Gazette in Gastonia, N.C.. He took the Gazette job after nearly 2 1/2 years as a reporter and photographer at the Havelock News, where he received six awards in the North Carolina Press Association’s News, Editorial and Photojournalism Contests.

Friedman has worked as a reporter at the Sun Journal newspaper in New Bern, a writer for The Wheelhouse, a community magazine based in Morehead City, and a videographer and creative services assistant with C-TV 10 Community Television.

He formerly attended Craven Community College in New Bern, where he served as executive editor of the Campus Communicator student newspaper.

William R. Toler is a longtime member of eastern North Carolina’s creative community, with credits in independent media, film, television and screenwriting. He is the former features editor and co-publisher of the Independent Register.

William R. Toler

He currently works as an associate producer for FOX Eastern Carolina News and production assistant for FOX and the ABC affiliate WCTI. Prior to entering television news, Toler was senior copywriter for Boomer Advertisng in New Bern and a reporter/designer for The Beaufort Observer, an independent newspaper in Washington, N.C. He served as production manager and later managing editor of the Campus Communicator at Craven Community College, where he received two associate’s degrees. While at CCC, Toler was an active member of Phi Beta Lambda and he served one year as state historian.

Toler’s work in film and television includes an array of short films (even serving as a puppeteer for Jay Tyson) and an internship on the live morning show “A.M. Scuttlebutt.” He has also dabbled in talk radio.

He continues to live on the family farm in Caton, N.C.

Eric Voliva is a writer and storyteller who hopes to add his byline to a book jacket. The former sports editor and co-publisher of the Independent Register, Voliva is currently writing a novel for eventual publication.

Eric Voliva

He has worked as a sportswriter and news reporter for the Pamlico News, a family-owned weekly newspaper based in Oriental. He previously served as production manager of the Campus Communicator student newspaper at Craven Community College and was a member of the Phi Beta Lambda business organization. He was awarded second place in desktop publishing at a state PBL conference in 2006.

Voliva has worked in a variety of industries, serving as dock foreman for a seafood company and a freight forwarder for a shipping firm whose clients include ESPN and the National Football League. He is a sports enthusiast and avid Carolina Panthers fan.

Voliva lives and writes in Centreville, Md.