State of the Voice and other stuff, March 2012

The news isn't always pretty

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

We just celebrated our 8th month of publication here at the Pincher Creek Voice, and we're pretty darn pleased with ourselves.  Not only has our readership skyrocketed, but we are also seeing a steady increase in advertising revenue.

At present, the Voice receives about 850 pageviews a day.  In the past month we've had one day's pageviews soar over the 2000 mark.  We've seen it be as low as 650 on a slow day.   We believe these to be remarkable numbers for a small market online startup like ours.


The most popular items by pageview are, unsurprisingly, "bad news" and sports.  However, we believe coverage of community news is the backbone to the success of our enterprise.  That certainly includes sports, but it includes so many other things as well.

I firmly believe we're creating something new here.  We're not the only ones, of course, not by a long shot, but we're finding our way in this new frontier, and your input certainly helps guide us on that journey.

In no particular order, here are a few things I think need clarifying, based upon feedback and inquiries we've received from readers as we make the rounds:

Opinions:
I have plenty of them.  I consider it my duty to keep them to myself in many circumstances, particularly where this publication is concerned.  Sure, you can ask me in private some time, but the Voice is not meant to be my personal speaking stick.  The Voice as an entity supports no political party over another.  It espouses no particular cause.  It is my hope that we continue to develop the trust of our readership so that anyone who has a concern can air it here.   Bottom line: if you can say it respectfully and within the bounds of legality and reason, we invite you to say it here.

As an aside, you probably have noticed we don't rewrite every press release we publish to make it unique and original.  We believe you have a right, for example, to read the words of the people you elected to represent you without the pretense of analysis from me or some other re-writer.  Certainly we've accepted rebuttals to those kinds of press releases as well.  We don't publish every Government of Alberta press release, for example, but we do publish the ones that seem to be a) locally relevant and b) not blatant electioneering.  It's your government.  You have a right to hear from them, to form your own opinion, and to rebut the things you want to rebut.  The Voice is not limited by a set number of pages.  There is plenty of room for multiple viewpoints here.  As an additional aside, the time we could spend rewriting press releases to give them some kind of in-house spin is instead spent on covering the events of our community.

If you have an opinion about that, I`d love to hear it.  Debate is the foundation of democracy.

Biases:
Having said all that, I do have biases, and some of them inevitably do make their way into the articles I write, and to some degree affect the editorial bias of the Voice.

For one thing, I believe in our Emergency Services and rescue personnel.  It was my distinct honour to work alongside them from time to time when I served as a volunteer fire-fighter in Cowley.  These folks are the finest people I've met, doing the toughest jobs I've seen.  They save lives and avert disaster, often under the worst circumstances and conditions.  Recently they once again prevented Main Street from burning down, in extremely miserable weather conditions, doing their utmost to save as much of the property on fire as they could,  only to be called "Keystone Cops" by some keyboard warrior.  I refute that opinion utterly.  I've been there when they've been working frantically and intelligently to free accident victims from their mangled vehicles.  I've been there when they've done their utmost to save the lives of people who have suffered heart attacks, domestic accidents, and any number of the other tragedies of life.  I've been there as they comforted the injured, the survivors, and the bereaved.  I've been there when they sacrificed their family/personal time to prevent fire from consuming our crops and homes and businesses.  I've seen them get up in the middle of the night to deal with very rel emergencies, forgoing sleep for our safety.  These men and women are my heroes. They've earned it and they keep on earning it.  Go ahead and tell me different, but be prepared to back it up or we're going to have us an argument.

I believe in fair play.  When I see good sportsmanship, my heart warms and the story becomes much easier to write.  When I see poor sportsmanship, it cools, and the story inevitably reflects that.  I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality of sportsmanship displayed in Pincher Creek in general.  I've lived in a fair few places, and I can testify that elsewhere fair play is not always held to the the high standards this community regularly demonstrates.

I believe in our young folk.  I've met many that work very hard at the tasks assigned them.  I've met many that are very smart, smarter than I'll ever be.  I've met many of them that represent a splendid hope for the future of our species. Yeah, I've met many that don't fit the above description too.  Folks my age and older so often forget that we were once young, and that so many of us turned out ok after all despite the imprecations of some of our own elders.  The times continue a'changing.

I believe in constructive dissent.  If you disagree with constructive dissent, let me know about it in more than 50 words.

I believe in Pincher Creek.  No, I wasn't born here.  My beloved Toni was, but that's a different story.  I chose this area among a plethora of choices because I saw a great community with an even greater potential.  Feel free to share everything you think is wrong with it, because out of that conversation will come the seeds of future growth.  However, if you decide to excoriate this community, you better back those words up with some solid facts or face some serious disagreement.

Considering the source:
We've taken a few knocks and criticisms along the way.  Some of them we thought were fair, and I believe we've addressed those, in some cases modifying the way we do things to better serve our community.  We strive daily to behave in a fair and respectful manner.   We're quite open to constructive criticism, and I believe we continue to demonstrate that. Concerned about something you've seen or read here?  Contact us at pinchercreekvoice@gmail.com.  We promise to respond to all reasonable concerns in a timely fashion.
We believe our readers are intelligent enough to form their own opinion of what we do.  When the criticism comes from those that don`t actually read the Voice, or from those who simply want to discredit us for unreasonable reasons, bah humbug.

Where are we going with this?  
Wherever stuff is happening.  Maybe we'll see you there.  We'll do our best to tell you about it, and if we get it wrong, tell us about it.  If you can tell it better, we have space for that too.

As we approach our first anniversary we remain committed to this endeavor.  Expect to see us grow and evolve over the next six months.  We have a few tricks up our sleeves yet.

Thank you for reading.