Vendors Send Invoices. Partners Share Wins.
Don't settle for a simple transaction when the stakes are high. Here’s how to find and build the partnerships that truly matter.
Back in 2008, I was working at Philly.com when I got a visit from a rep for a company called CineSport. They produced and distributed digital sports content for local media sites, blogs, and portals. With our huge sports audience—and Philly’s reputation as a “sports town”—he figured we’d be a good client.
The problem was, I wasn’t looking for a vendor. I was looking for a partner.
At first glance, that might sound like semantics. But it wasn’t. This was a new space for us—a new product, with real unknowns—and I needed someone who would treat our site like their own. Someone who saw our goals as their goals. Not just a vendor who sent monthly invoices and occasional revenue checks.
The rep—Sil Scaglione, as it turns out—might’ve thought I was a little nuts. I probably wasn’t as eloquent then as I’m making it sound now. But to his credit, Sil saw the opportunity: not just to grow his business, but to build something new together. We struck a deal.
Over the next five years, CineSport became one of our most reliable revenue streams. And Sil? We stayed in touch. After I left Philly.com and started consulting, I did some work for CineSport. Later, when I joined Lehigh Valley Public Media, I brought Sil on as our first Chief Revenue Officer.
You could chalk this all up to “we just got along”—and that’s true. But more than that, the CineSport team was committed to our success, not just to delivering their product. I never had to chase them. I never wondered if they’d come through. That experience taught me the value of building partnerships—not just managing vendor relationships.
CineSport was ultimately acquired by TCA in 2015. But what stuck with me wasn’t just the business outcome—it was the relationship that made that success possible.
When I got to Lehigh Valley Public Media, I quickly realized that with five TV stations, it wasn’t realistic for us to create all our own programming or purchase syndication directly. So we worked with The Programming Service—a fantastic group led by BaBette Davidson, with Alexis Landis and Regina Berry as the core of our team.
And again, what we built was a partnership. They celebrated our ratings wins and stressed over our declines. We laughed, argued, and problem-solved together. And the quality of that work, just like with CineSport, far surpassed anything you’d get from a standard vendor relationship.
These stories matter because today’s economic reality makes this approach essential, not optional. Budgets are tight and most teams are stretched thin. You need people in your corner who care about your bottom line, not just theirs.
When so much of our work is becoming automated and impersonal, a real human partnership built on trust isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a huge advantage. In a time when everyone’s trying to wring maximum value from every tool, platform, and service, it’s tempting to think of external partners as plug-and-play.
But the best results still come from relationships, not transactions.
This applies across our industry: revenue partnerships like CineSport, sure, but also editorial collaborations, distribution deals, syndication relationships—even your go-to freelancers and stringers. The principle scales whether you’re working with a national wire service or the photographer who covers your local high school games.
Of course, not every relationship needs to be this deep. If you’re just buying pens or a basic software license, a simple transaction is all you need—it’s fast and it works. But when the stakes are higher, when you’re counting on that service for revenue or to deliver for your audience, that’s when you have to stop looking for a vendor and start searching for a real partner.
And that responsibility doesn’t fall solely on the vendor. Much like a middle-school dance—where the boys huddle on one side of the gym and the girls on the other—sometimes you have to be the one who crosses the room and starts the conversation.
You’re not proposing marriage. But you are saying: “I like what your service does. Here’s what I’m hoping for beyond the scope of the contract—and here’s how I plan to show up, too.”
Partnerships take more upfront effort. But they build long-term trust, shared wins, and way fewer headaches down the line.
And this isn't just a media thing. Whether you're running a nonprofit, managing a tech team, or sourcing vendors for a healthcare org, the principle holds: the best results come when both sides act like they’re in it together.
How do you know if you’ve found a real partner?
Start the same way you would with a new hire: run reference checks. Talk to their other clients. Ask how they handle problems, not just how they celebrate wins.
Then pull out your culture-fit questions. How do they prefer to communicate? Are they email-only? Does that mesh with your more conversational style—texts, Slack, the occasional “got-a-minute?” call?
Sure, you’ll want to review the Service Level Agreement. But the real test lives in what isn’t in writing. That’s where most partnerships either thrive or fall apart.
Be direct about what’s at stake. I once told a potential partner: “If this doesn’t come through, a year from now none of us will be on this call.” That wasn’t a threat. It was a reality. And it set the tone for a different kind of relationship—one where we were on the same side of the table from the very start. That direct approach worked. They leaned in, we built something solid together, and two years later we were still navigating challenges neither of us had anticipated.
What about you? Think about a time a vendor truly acted like a partner. What did they do that made the difference?
Share your story in the comments.