On April 7, 2008, with the help of my good friend Peter Mallory, we launched NSBNews.net, the first 24/7 Internet-only newspaper. Our initial target audience was New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater and Oak Hill. Last October, we expanded our coverage to include Volusia County.
In 2012, we're going to enhance the small Internet newspaper as a viable medium even further by including Brevard, Seminole, Orange, Putnam, Flagler and St. Johns counties with "news and notes." We'll also report significant news happenings around the state when we can with the limited resources that we have. But our No. 1 priority is and will continue to be New Smyrna Beach.
We can't be everywhere and we don't pretend that we are better or even on par with established print newspapers TV news operations and other mediums across Florida. We see ourselves as an alternative digital source for a media-hungry public growing tired of traditional print media and its advertising conflicts with municipal and county government through taxpayer-supported CRAs and bed tax-supported advertising authority dollars.
The key is we don't have to beat the print newspapers on anything. They have to beat us on everything. It's a matter of pride. On most days, we're lucky to carry out our daily news coverage in New Smyrna Beach, but we know how to go get the news that we feel is important.
The keys to carrying this out are as follows:
* The journalism: My work speaks for itself. Multiple journalism industry awards in breaking news, investigative reporting and feature writing. Experience as a metro-trained reporter and small daily city editor with stops in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Florida. Strong knowledge of Florida's open records statutes and the state's Sunshine Laws. Intense coverage of police and courts and training from journalism think tanks like the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg and the National Press Foundation in Washington.
* Integrated website: NSBNews.net is built for the digital age. It may not look the prettiest, but it is functional. We carry more than 7,000 pages continuously, including the archiving of all of our content, including thousands of postings and hundreds of videos. Our content is carried by Google News directories and placed at or near the top of search pages on the Internet.
* Social media: We have more than 10,200 contacts on Facebook and growing. Those are my pages alone.
* Keeping it real: Being honest with the public about is important. That means full transparency. For example, in our coverage of the recent Norwood's Holiday Food & Wine Festival in New Smyrna Beach, we put an editor's note stating part of our three-year advertising agreement with the restaurant includes coverage of its annual festival.
* Involving the community: We encourage as much community interaction from citizens as we can, including opportunities for community bloggers. NSBNews.net serves New Smyrna Beach, first and foremost because this is where we live, raise our families and work. As we grow, so will exposure to New Smyrna Beach and that's a good thing. It's unfortunate that the elected officials and the political and business insiders don't see that.
* Operations and revenue streams: Our philosophy from day 1 has been to build a viable news site and let the revenue trickle in. For all of its advertising, the far bigger and established print newspapers are seeing declining revenues. Our operation is small. We only need enough advertising to pay for labor. Our equipment is state of the art, the website itself built to integrate with search engines and providers like Google News directories. We also have Google Analytics which show our readership in 24-hour cycles. We have more than $300,000 invested in NSBNews.net and we're debt free.
* Name recognition: NSBNews.net is not something the average person can relate when compared to Central Florida mediums like the Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, WFTV or WESH TV. The "NSB" stands for New Smyrna Beach. The "news" stands for the obvious, "news." And the ".net" for the Internet. After awhile, people could care less about what the acronym stands for. For example, how many people know what "CBS" stands for or "ESPN" or "CNN?" Most people on the Internet search for their news (see next bulleted highlight)
* Internet searches: Our experience is that most people get their news by searching for it either through engines like Google or Yahoo or Bing. There are still others like MSN and AOL. And, Facebook where media outlets post news items. NSBNews.net is fully integrated for those searches and built for browsers that feature the latest technology like Firefox Mozilla and Chrome and Safari for most Mac users.
*URLs and community identification: In 2012, readers of NSBNews.net, also branded as VolusiaNews.net, will be able to seek out local news in their community by typing in their own city with "news.net." For example, those living in Pierson or anywhere else for that matter looking for Pierson news can go directly to whatever content we have by simply typing in PiersonNews.net. Others in Volusia County will include OrmondBeachNews.net, HollyHillNews.net, PortOrangeNews.net, DaytonaBeachShoresNews.net, SouthDaytonaNews.net, PonceInletNews.net,
DeLonSpringsNews.net, LakeHelenNews.net, DeltonaNews.net, DeBaryNews.net, OrangeCityNews.net, OsteenNews.net, NewSmyrnaBeachNews.net, EdgewaterNews.net and OakHillNews.net. There are two exceptions due to domain names already acquired elsewhere. Daytona Beach is DaytonaNews.net and DeLand is DelandCityNews.net.
We also have domain names for key cities in Brevard, Seminole, Orange, Putnam, Flagler and St. Johns counties with the news.net. For example, in Titusville, we have TitusvilleNews.net and In Lake Mary, LakeMarynews.net.
* E-mail alerts: NSBNews.net has electronic newsletters that can carry breaking news or promotions to e-mails of those signed up with us.
Integrated social media: You can see our latest Facebook postings and how many people "like" our fan pages on NSBNews.net as well as our Twitter tweets.
There is much for us to be excited about in 2012. We'll update you on our progress as we continue along. Right now, the website is in disarray and we're even behind on stories and coverage area, but we've had to make sacrifices with limited funding and resources. Thank you for your patience and God bless.