About The Buffalo Hive -

Our mission statement:

The Buffalo Hive is a nonprofit online journalism organization dedicated to covering Western New York arts and culture communities by providing thorough, independent reporting and the most inclusive, comprehensive event calendar possible.

Facts & figures:

The Buffalo Hive launched on July 22, 2024. Since then, we’ve published over 2,000 stories and published several thousand events on our events calendar. We have had over 200,000 page views and over 100,000 site visitors. We have social media presences on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

We are a New York State registered charity and received our 501(c)(3) designation on Dec. 31, 2025.

We have done this while paying our writers (over $30,000 and rising, in total) and collaborating with writers, podcasters, videographers, photographers and organizations across Western New York.

Our vision & goals:

The Buffalo Hive is filling a gap left by the abandonment of the arts and culture spheres of life in Western New York by The Buffalo News and the disappearance of the alternative weekly publications.

We know that doing things the same way they’ve always been done isn’t going to work. Instead we’re approaching this as an opportunity to work with evolving technology rather than being acted on by it.

Every organization has to do at least one of two things: provide a solution to a problem or provide some kind of reward to its audience. The Buffalo Hive will do both.

The biggest problem we’re solving is, as our initial promo video phrased it, the problem of “why didn’t I know about that?”

There are several online calendars in the region, and some of them are very good. But none of them cross the borders between all kinds of arts and culture, from big arena concerts all the way to small town art show or Lenten fish fries.

The reward that we’re providing is in offering well-written, independent JOURNALISM about what is happening in the cultural life of our community. We’re not a marketing company that does “pay for play” or simply reposts PR releases. We will pay journalists to report on what they see and hear.

Our primary allegiance is THE AUDIENCE. While there will be plenty of sponsorship opportunities on our site, sponsorhip will not be linked to coverage. To be a valid journalistic entity, those have to be separate, and they will be.

While we’re dedicated to bedrock journalistic ethics, we will also be pioneering a new community approach to journalism in Western New York.

We will be AVAILABLE to the audience and engaged with it. We plan to have meetups and gatherings that are open to the public and where they can tell us what we’re getting right and, especially important, what we may not be getting right. The public will have the option of helping out or pitching in.

We will be actively reaching out to what have traditionally been underserved communities for both their stories and for journalists. Part of our mission is to train a new generation of journalists, especially from those communities, so they can tell their own stories.

Our financial model will start with a small (two people) paid staff, which will eventually grow as The Buffalo Hive develops. But we’re also planning to rely on a corps of paid freelancers who bring specific knowledge and expertise about their coverage areas. This will cost money, and we’ll have to raise it!

Our business model is built on a combination of models, but falls closest to public media (think NPR and PBS stations). We will be offering memberships to individuals, we will offer sponsorship opportunities, we will conduct events to both raise money and to engage with the community, and we will be seeking grants and other private and public support.

That’s a lot to take on, but we’re ready to get started. This is going to be fun.

Who are we?

Editor-in-Chief/Executive Director: Elmer Ploetz

Elmer Ploetz is the first editor of The Buffalo Hive. His background includes 27 years in print journalism (the last 23 with The Buffalo News), 16 years (and counting) as a journalism professor at SUNY Fredonia, documentaries (“Bflo Pnk 1.0” and “Bflo Pnk 2.0: A Toys Story”), podcasts, websites and social media. He recorded a music CD with great Buffalo guitarist Matt Smith (“They Don’t Write ‘Em,” as the Demo Daddies), but good luck finding it.

Ploetz is a past member of the boards of directors of the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation (where he edited the JAM newsletter). His interests in music range from early punk rock to blues, country, funk, old rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, folk and even a bit of classical. Some of his favorite bigger-name interviews were with Pete Seeger, Aaron Copland and Captain Lou Albano, but his focus is really on Western New York music, of which he has a collection of thousands of records, cassettes, CDs and audio files.

You can find examples of his earlier work HERE and his videos HERE and HERE.

Assistant Editor Chloe Kowalyk

Chloe Kowalyk is The Buffalo Hive’s editorial assistant, where she aids in editing stories, web posting and even writing a few of her own. Kowalyk is the marketing director at local music venue Buffalo Iron Works, where she works directly with local, national and touring artists. Kowalyk graduated from SUNY Fredonia in May 2024, where she studied journalism and psychology, with a focus on covering local music and promoting local artists.

Assistant Editor Anna Gagliano

Podcast Editor Matt Volz

Board of Directors:

Board President: David Lotempio

Dave Lotempio is a highly accomplished nonprofit leader and fundraising expert with 26 years of dedicated experience at People Inc., the largest human services agency in Western New York. As Associate Vice President of Grants, Dave has played a pivotal role in shaping strategic initiatives that secure critical funding for programs benefiting over 4,000 individuals annually. His expertise in grant writing, donor stewardship and strategic planning has raised over $12 million in a decade, enabling People Inc. to expand its impact across services including employment, residential housing, healthcare and senior services.

Throughout his career, Dave has consistently demonstrated a commitment to fostering dynamic partnerships and implementing innovative practices. His leadership extends to academia, where he inspires future nonprofit professionals as an adjunct instructor at SUNY Buffalo, teaching grant writing and strategic development. His strategic vision and hands-on approach continue to strengthen institutional support, ensuring remarkably sustainable growth and measurable long-term success for nonprofit initiatives across the Western New York region.

Board Vice President: Robert J. McLennan

I am very pleased to be part of the founding structure of The Buffalo Hive. As someone who has always been very interested in the music scene in Buffalo and WNY, I’ve felt for a long time that there is a definite need for a really comprehensive music calendar. And I also miss the journalism that goes with the coverage of all the arts: movies, theater, art and literature.

I spent most of my working life as the president of Branch 3 of the National Association of Letter Carriers. I also served for nearly 20 years as a Vice-President of the WNY Area Labor Federation, so I have been involved in a wide variety of activities in the labor movement.

Since I retired from the U.S. Postal Service, I’ve worked part time bargaining contracts for the Office of Professional Employees International Union and I spent a few years on the staff of NY State Senator Tim Kennedy.

Over the past decade I have served as the president of the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation for over five years. I still co-produce for the SAM Foundation, with Buffalo guitarist Doug Yeomans, the annual show that is now a Thanksgiving tradition at Babeville: Buffalo’s The Last Waltz.

I am also the founder of the Buffalo Music Coalition. We book music locally, currently at Buffalo Olde Brewery, and we arrange to put on various shows throughout the year at different venues.

Buffalo has a very diverse and exciting music and arts scene and it deserves much more coverage and attention than it is getting from traditional media. That’s where The Buffalo Hive comes in.

Thank you for checking us out and for your continued support.

Board Member: Erica Wolfling

Erica Wolfling (she/they) joined the board of The Buffalo Hive as Treasurer in 2025. She is a skilled accountant and bookkeeper with a heart for social justice, assisting small business’ and nonprofits to build, strengthen and maintain their financial well-being. She is the owner of Erica Wolfling Bookkeeping and their mission is to “bookkeep for the revolution.” In her free time, Erica performs as a singer-songwriter under the alter-ego, Erica the Ice Dragon, and creates abstract pop art as a visual artist. They love board games, building community and being a part of the arts and music scene in Buffalo. She also sits on the Board for Our City Action Buffalo, a political nonprofit in the city.

Board Member: Mike Farrow

Board Member: Sydney O’Shei

Board Member: Tom Makar

Tom is a longtime Buffalo-area musician, sound designer, theater pro and general renaissance man.

Regular Contributors:

M. Faust (film)
Jason Pomietlasz (comedy)
Monica Power (daily music and community listings)
Benjamin Joe (local music)

We also have a group of occasional contributors whose stories we offer when there are stories to be told in their specific areas of expertise.

Collaborators:

Andrew Galarneau (Four Bites)
Seamus Gallivan (The Reconnecter’s Buffalodown)
Greg Hennessey (In the Flamingo Lounge with Rockabilly Greg podcast)
Jeff Miers (Miers on Music)
Melinda Miller (MM’s Buffalo Stages)
Peter Palmisano (“Off Road” podcast)
R.D. Pohl (Buffalo Area Poetry & Literature Calendar)

Our Values

We believe that the arts and culture of Western New York are what makes our region unique, and that they deserve the same level of coverage as government, the legal and justice systems and local business.
We believe that writers, photographers and artists should be paid for their work.
We believe that great journalism is collaborative and that copy editing and all kinds of editing are crucial to doing it right.
We believe that collaboration and cooperation between nonprofits, arts groups, cultural groups and other entities are essential for our region to prosper.
We believe transparency is essential to journalistic integrity. Readers and viewers should know where their information is coming from and the perspective those sources may represent.
We believe in offering training and opportunity for the next generations of journalists and citizens.

Contact us:

The Buffalo Hive is a New York State registered charity (NY Registration ID 50-36-79) and a federal 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our Internal Revenue Service EIN is 99-2886805.