State of the Voice, November 2012

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Since we established the Pincher Creek Voice as a commercial concern in July of 2011 we've seen a meteoric rise in readership.  As of this date, our readership numbers are still increasing on a month by month basis, albeit less drastically than they did after we started with 0.   According to Google analytics, in the last 30 days we've had 7,459 "unique" visitors for a total of 35,199 pageviews.  That's actually down a little bit from this time last month.  Charts and such will be posted at the end of this editorial.


We've established a strong daily readership.  Thank you.  We'll keep striving to keep you coming back.

We're about to face some new challenges, as is expected in this particularly topsy-turvy business.  At least one of our major competitors is undergoing a major change, which I'm sure they'll reveal to the public in their own time and manner.  We're also preparing to expand our reach significantly in a couple of different ways, which will also be revealed by us shortly.  We expect that expansion to benefit both our present and potential readership and our advertisers.

Commercially, the Pincher Creek Voice has headed solidly into the black.  The parent company, Pincher Creek Multimedia, is also beginning to thrive.  We are therefore quite optimistic about our ability to grow in a stable and profitable way.

We're a small company, to be sure, and quite proudly local.  When it comes to the news and sports we cover, local content will continue to be our main imperative.

Because of the nature of our medium, the internet, our overhead is remarkably low, which we consider to be a key element of our present and future success.  Our business model means we can deliver the news faster, in more detail, with more photographs and video.  We intend to improve upon that delivery significantly in the coming months.

In a nutshell, we're here for the long-haul.

Enough about that for now.

A few other things I feel compelled to address:

Opinions

The opinions of our columnists are theirs, not necessarily ours. We believe in freedom of speech, within the parameters of the family newspaper atmosphere we've created. Editorially we espouse no causes, we back no candidates, we don't play favourites. I believe it's our duty to present as many facts and points of view as we can, and then we leave it up to you the reader to decide what you might think about any particular subject.  That's true except for one particular thing: we reserve the right to cheer for the home team.

Comments

Sometimes a comment that is contrary to our standards slips through our censorship and gets published.  That happened earlier this week, and a reader brought it to our attention.  While we do not accept liability for the comments of others, we do strive to maintain a certain level of respect and decorum in our comments section.  Yes, we do filter comments.  No, we don't always do so perfectly.  I don't apologize for the censorship of comments.  We get over 30 spam comments a day.  We get several comments a week that are racist, violent, or unnecessarily vile in other ways.  Yes, we make the decision as to what gets published in our publication.  There are lots of places on the internet that are unfettered by censorship.  This isn't one of them.  Feel free to disagree.  Dissent is the right of every citizen.  We feel free to establish and maintain standards for how that dissent is expressed in our publication.  Posting as "Anonymous" does not excuse you from the human race, nor does it give you special rights.  It does give you a safe way to express yourself without fear of repercussions, understood.  That's why we allow anonymous commenting.

Let us know what's going on

Thousands of people are going to visit this website this week, in search of stories.  Your story should be here for them to read.  Tell us about it.  Let us know about it in a timely enough way that we can arrange to cover it. Telling us at 11:00 that you have an event going on at noon doesn't really cut it.  We can only take your event as seriously as you do.  And no, we're not likely to be paying to get in.  In an average week that would reduce our revenue to "hobby" status.  16 hours a day 7 days a week is not a hobby.  If you want to be the one to tell the story, we're very open to that.  We're not expecting anyone to give us free content, but we're certainly not against the notion.  A side note: If your event comes with a "handler" who's mission is to tell us what we're allowed to say, be aware that we don't do things that way.  If you do, you need a publicist not a reporter, and we can give you a clear list of our rates for that service.

Tell us what we're missing

Is there something you'd like to see as a regular feature in the Pincher Creek Voice that it is presently missing?  We're open to suggestions.

Tell us when we got it wrong

Did we spell your name wrong?  Give us what-for.  Did we misconstrue a quote, mistype something, or get our facts wrong?  Please tell us.  We'd much rather be right than "never wrong".  We publish 35 to 50 pieces in an average week, and some of them are quite extensive. We're going to make mistakes.  Everybody does.  We'd rather they be corrected as soon as possible.

Keep reading!

You're the reason there is a Pincher Creek Voice.  Thank you.

Google Analytics, Pincher Creek Voice, Oct. 16-Nov. 16, 2012