It’s hard to believe 2023 has come and is almost gone—it’s really flown by for me—and I wanted to leave you with a final message as we celebrate the holidays.
First of all, thanks to East Cobb News readers for your readership and your financial support.
This has been the best year for our 6-1/2-year-old site in terms of traffic and readership growth, and it’s very gratifying.
As I write this, we are approaching 1.7 million page views and more than 875,000 unique visitors.
That last figure is important, because it averages out to around 75,000 individual accounts that visit this site at least once a month. That’s around a third our coverage area of 200,000.
Our newsletter growth also has been very solid this year, as we recently surpassed 8,700 subscribers.
Our previous annual best for traffic was 2020, which was the year of the start of COVID-19 and an election year.
In 2023, we had none of those things, and readers have been coming to East Cobb News for a variety of reasons, and that’s what’s been so heartening.
Whether it’s coverage of local government and politics, schools news, crime, traffic, zoning, or new businesses and restaurants, readers have told us repeatedly how much they value what they get in one place—whether it’s daily on our site, via social media postings or through the newsletter.
There are more details in the video below, but I also wanted to thank those of you who have contributed to our “6 for 6” readership campaign this year.
We really appreciate the financial support as we strive to serve you with more news that’s relevant to you, and as we continue this experiment in redefining what local news can mean for the East Cobb community.
As I have said previously in this column, the local news landscape looks bleak and barren in many places, as legacy media—traditional newspapers, radio and television—have struggled to adapt to the digital age.
East Cobb News is all-online, publishing every day, with timely, professionally reported news and useful community information that makes a difference for the people who live here.
That’s who we do this for, and if you like what you see here and you haven’t donated before, consider making a contribution at whatever amount you like.
Simply put, East Cobb News readers are at the center of what this is all about. Unlike many other media outlets, we don’t charge to read our coverage, and we never will. No paywalls here.
We offer this news resource as a public service to the community, but we’re also a small business. We want to continue telling the stories of the people that make East Cobb a special place to call home for many years to come.
Donate today!
We also believe that local news and local business go hand-in-hand, and our advertisers are much like our readers—they tell us how much they like how deeply local we are. They want to reach local audiences, and there’s not a better-engaged readership in East Cobb than those who are part of East Cobb News.
But there’s so much more we want to do!
In the coming year, we want to go more in-depth with the news and features that our readers come to expect, especially with an election year coming.
I want to hear from you about what you value in East Cobb News, and ask how we can make this site better. I will be sending a reader survey out in early January, and I would appreciate the feedback.
In the meantime, I’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We’ll be on a lighter posting schedule for the rest of the year, but stay tuned for our roundup of top stories of the year and other features as we approach New Year’s.
Seasons Greetings East Cobb and thanks for your readership!
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