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e-KNOW turns five
Five years ago today East Kootenay News Online Weekly (e-KNOW) had two regular readers; Velma McKay (Carrie’s mom) and Pat Juozaitis (Velma’s buddy).
We launched our online newspaper website to absolutely no fanfare with the hopes and aim to create readership, and from that, advertising revenue to fund the presentation of news and events in our region.
As we turn five, we are happy to report that we now have more than 17,000 subscribers (email, Facebook, Twitter and Linked In) and are pushing the four million mark for page views in a calendar year.
Readers a-plenty and advertisers have found e-KNOW, clicking in from all over the region on a regular basis, along with ex-pats living across the province, nation and globe. We are also getting lots of click action from readers in the nearby U.S. states – an indicator of how times are changing.
No longer is a ‘community newspaper’ confined to readers in a given coverage area thanks to the digital age and ever-connectedness of incrementally growing numbers across the globe – the device detained and distracted.
While it seems a troubling societal issue to those of us born before the 1980s, device and computer addiction isn’t a trend – it’s a rampaging forward fact. And in the past five years e-KNOW has positioned itself well to take advantage of these rapid changes.
It’s been a hell of a lot of work but it is has also been satisfying and fun and meaningful, and what more can one ask of their job or career?
It also couldn’t have been achieved without the participation of a whole bunch of people, from readers and advertisers to submitting writers and photographers and the always growing number of community organizations taking advantage of the exposure provided by e-KNOW.
Carrie’s Mom passed away almost three years ago and we lost our biggest supporter, but Patty keeps clicking away and we thank her for her faithful support.
Listing names in public displays of appreciation can be a risk as someone (s) are always forgotten, so we’re going to keep it short.
We thank everyone who provides tips and information, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. And we ask that you keep it coming!
We thank our local RCMP officers, search and rescue organizations, fire fighters, paramedics, ER staff, conservation officers and anyone involved in the front line of the day-to-day betterment of our society. We live in a mountain paradise and it is made so much better by the people who live and work here. The East Kootenay is a unique and amazing place and for good reason!
We thank our regular contributors who give e-KNOW its soul, such as Chris Newel, Chad St. Pierre, Derryll White, Gerry Warner, Kyla Cornish, Michael O’Connor, Mary Giuliano, Kim Inglis, Colin Campbell, Bob Ede, Stephanie Stevens, Elinor Florence, Christine Shaw, Ute Juras, Rick Nowell, Riki Unrau, Jason Wheeldon, Josh Lockhart, Chris Conway, David + Katie Photography, Kristof Gillese, Brenda Babinski and all authors of letters to the editor.
Please keep your wonderful work coming and don’t forget that e-KNOW is the widest read ‘newspaper’ in the East Kootenay. We’ve become an important soapbox. We need more people speaking out and being heard in order to make the changes needed in our society.
We thank all our municipal workers and all elected officials, local, provincial and federal, for their work and sacrifices, with a special nod of appreciation to outgoing MLAs Bill Bennett and Norm Macdonald. The passage of time is the best judge as to how a politician is viewed and you will both be viewed as earnest souls who did what they thought was best for their riding and province.
We thank Chris Botterill and Genex Marketing for continuing to power e-KNOW. For an old ink-stained wretch such as myself, the idea of launching an online only newspaper, with all its potential technological hell, was a daunting and difficult path and Chris and his team have made the trek so much smoother and far, far less challenging than it otherwise could have been.
We thank our family and friends for being patient and understanding when we cannot attend something or have to leave early.
Finally, we thank all of our advertisers – current and past and future – for helping e-KNOW to grow and stay alive in these difficult and changing times. It is through advertiser support that the East Kootenay’s widest read source of need-to-know community information is kept going.
From zero readers to the occasional viral post and millions of annual page views; we’ve come a long way in a short time.
We look forward to the next five years of growth and providing the news, information and event promotion and coverage for all four spectacular corners of the East Kootenay.
Thank you again and cheers!
Ian Cobb and Carrie Schafer