Local People, Local Stories: The Team Behind the Neighborhood

For the last 10 months, London Neighbors has been delivering inspiring, touching stories about the people right here in our community to your mailbox. Behind the scenes, we, at London Neighbors, have been working tirelessly each month to bring you new, exciting content with hopes of instilling a sense of pride in our community.

This month, we would like to take an opportunity to formally introduce ourselves to you, our readers. Our team includes Jonathan Cloud, our publisher; Emily Bentley, the content coordinator; and Jason Boulanger, our photographer.

Jonathan is originally from Hazard. He has one daughter, Brooklyn, who is a seventh grader at South Laurel Middle School. After graduating high school, Jonathan moved to London where he began working at Tincher Williams Chevrolet.

When Jonathan first began working for Tincher Williams, he said he needed extra money to help ends meet and was approached by Bill Webb who offered him the opportunity to help on his car lot any time he needed the extra cash.

“Every week, he would offer me a ride to his shop to work and would find work for me to do, even if it really didn’t need done, just to help me out,” Jonathan said. “He didn’t know me or owe me anything but up until he passed away, he offered ways to help someone that needed the help. I find the same is true about the members of this community; we are more like family than a community. That’s why I decided this was home for me.”

In 2021, Jonathan opened Cloud Aerial Imaging, a drone photography service, as well as 107 Ground School, an educational course designed to educate others on becoming a licensed drone pilot for the state of Kentucky. He specializes in helping first responders all over the state, including the London Police Department, receive their drone pilot licensing. Today, Jonathan owns Locally Branded LLC and is the publisher of this magazine, as well as Best Version Media’s Market Leader for Southeast and Lexington, Kentucky.

When Jonathan originally moved to London in 2003, he found himself in East Bernstadt but later moved closer to town where he fell in love with the area, the people and everything about this community.

“Growing up, we would travel to London from Hazard every week to find something to do, paying toll on the parkway in spare change in the car, so I may have moved here from Hazard in 2003, but I have been a part of this area for over 20 years,” Jonathan said.

Best Version Media has been providing the opportunity for communities to come together and help businesses grow since 2007. It began with just six local magazines in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has since expanded across the United States and into Canada. BVM publications focus on sharing local, family-friendly content every month at no cost to the community.

And when Jonathan began searching for something to give back to the community that had given him so much, he said it was a no-brainer to partner with BVM to do just that.

“BVM puts every ounce of effort into truly bringing people together,” he said. “They specialize in local communities, the amazing stories that are within and it turns normal people into celebrities each and every month. Backed with a second-to-none marketing team, they provide the very best way to help local businesses brand themselves and stay relevant in every community they serve. It’s the best of both worlds for our community and local business owners.”

Jonathan’s role within the publication includes meeting with local business owners and helping to bring local exposure to the services those businesses provide the community on a multi-level platform, as well as overseeing every edition of the magazine.

“Not only have we been able to bring this community this publication and an incredible amount of exposure to our local businesses, but we are a part of a larger community that stretches to every community from Sadieville, Kentucky to Williamsburg and from Campbellsville to Pikeville, placing a publication in each town to help them bring their communities together,” he said. “Our most recent area we are expanding into is the Lake Cumberland area. We want to bring the comradery and the together mentality that London has to all of Kentucky. I firmly believe that London sets the standard when it comes to how to bring people together.”

Late last year, Jonathan reached out to me, Emily, about joining this publication as the content coordinator for London Neighbors. At the time, I had no idea what exactly that meant, nor did I know what London Neighbors or BVM was, but I did know it meant I would have an opportunity to write again, something that I have always been passionate about.

I have spent my entire life in our little community. I was born here. I grew up here. I went to school here, worked here, have raised my family here. My entire life is here.

My husband’s name is Zach, we have two children, Eloise and Elliott, and we live in Keavy with our two cats and three dogs.

I graduated from North Laurel High School in 2014 and went on to Somerset Community College where I graduated with my associate degree. During that time, I was working at EC Porter’s as a cashier. In 2017, I took an internship at the Times-Tribune in Corbin and started working towards my bachelor’s degree at Eastern Kentucky University. I commuted to Richmond multiple days a week while continuing to work as a reporter full-time at the newspaper.

In 2019, I took the sports reporter position that had opened at the Sentinel Echo where I began covering sports for both the Sentinel Echo and the Times-Tribune, which I did until the summer of 2020. After the birth of my daughter, I returned to work as a news reporter once again at the Times-Tribune where I remained until the birth of my son in July 2022 when we made the decision that I stay home with our two children.

I began babysitting for some friends during the week, meaning on any given day, I may have up to five kids climbing me like a jungle gym.

But still, I was looking for something to cure that itch to write again. Last year, I began a mom blog that fizzled out quickly, so when Jonathan reached out to me about writing for a community magazine, I was instantly interested. I had spent the last year and a half looking for ways to cure the writer’s itch and hadn’t quite scratched it yet, so I said “yes!”

Jonathan has entrusted me with coming up with story ideas for every edition, interviewing our featured families, as well as editing and putting together all the content for our publication each month. I can say it has truly been a privilege to write these stories for you, our community members, to read.

Jason was asked to join the team at the beginning of this year as the publication’s photographer after connecting with Jonathan online while Jason was serving as a media ambassador for the World Chicken Festival. On the recommendation of a mutual friend, Jonathan asked about Jason’s interest in becoming the publication’s photographer and he, of course, said yes.

Jason grew up in southern California but landed in Laurel County due to his wife Rebekah’s medical career. After a particularly cold day in Michigan during Rebekah’s three-year residency, the pair knew they wanted to be somewhere a little warmer and began looking at jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee for Rebekah following her residency.

“She ended up interviewing here in London and we liked the area when we came and visited, so we were thrilled when she was hired here,” he said. “What I love most about this community is how friendly and welcoming everyone has been. I grew up in a metro area with a combined population several times the entire state of Kentucky, and when there are that many people it's easy to feel like just a faceless dot floating through life. Here, I feel like a member of an actual community even though we've only been here for about four years.”

Jason has an associate degree in paralegal studies and a bachelor's in political science. Aside from a short stint in his mid-20s working as a paralegal, Jason has been a photographer his entire adult life. He began as an in-house photographer for a publishing company with several different magazines and has since done it all from weddings to family photos, commercial work and much more. As the magazine's photographer, Jason coordinates and performs the photoshoots for each month's featured individuals.

“I see London Neighbors as a celebration of this community and the strength of the people who make it up,” Jason said. “I hope that my work will showcase London and its residents in the best light possible!”

The three of us together make up the London Neighbors team, a group of like-minded individuals with the hopes of bringing our community closer together.

Because of London Neighbors, we have had all had the opportunity to really get to know our neighbors in this community on a whole other level, people we may have never crossed paths with before.

Over the last 10 months, I have laughed and cried along with so many of our neighbors, something that is truly a special experience. I have had this unique opportunity to sit down with and hear the inspiring stories of our community members and string their words together in a featured article for you, our readers.

“I normally wait until the publication comes to me in print to read the feature story, I want to feel what our readers are feeling when they read it for the first time,” Jonathan said. “I can personally say that London has so many incredible people with incredible stories that truly inspire anyone that takes the time to read about all the things we have accomplished here in this community. I love seeing the reaction of our neighbors when they know the person on the front cover and can’t wait to hear who is next.”

As our photographer, Jason said he has also had a special opportunity to get to know others in the community on a deeper level.

“I have gotten to meet people I probably wouldn't have otherwise and hear their stories,” he said. “I leave each photoshoot with not only photos, but a better understanding of the place I live. And yes, I know that sounds cliche, but it's absolutely true!”

We hope that London Neighbors has been as special to you to receive each month as it has been for us to put together. We hope to continue to inspire our readers with each new edition and look forward to continuing this special project for our community.

“All that I can ask is that our community continues to support our publication and understands that it is this community that truly drives the continued growth of our area,” Jonathan said. “I hope they use London Neighbors to come together and support each other the way I was supported when I first moved here 20 years ago.”