One Million Page Views Later...

by Dennis Randall
Kingston Observer Web Editor

This month not only marks the first year anniversary of the newspaper, it is also cause to celebrate the end of one year of online publishing. Aside from our unusual blend of local news, political analysis, and editorial opinion, we’ve harnessed the power of the Internet to provide a 24-hour a day platform for breaking news. As far as we can tell, we are unique. The Observer is just about the only non-daily community newspaper in the nation to totally integrate its printed product with online delivery.

As a free community newspaper, we have no reservations about providing public access to every word, article, and column, which currently appears in print or has appeared in the past. But our website is more than an online archive of published Observer stories. It is a living breathing extension of our printed product and gives us the ability to update and break news on a 24/7 basis. For example the ashes of the Pottle Street Davis’ barn were still smoldering when we launched our series of exclusive fire photos. More recently the Anthrax scare on Nottingham Drive was reported online in detail with words and photos, within hours of the discovery.

The startling headlines in this month’s edition will be followed and updated online as events unfold. Critics have declared the Observer’s website to be “world class”, and our site logs support that contention. Since we launched KingstonObserver.com in December of last year, we’ve delivered nearly 1.5 million page views to almost 50,000 visitors from around the globe. The bulk of our traffic is obviously local, but it is exciting to see the list of countries logging on to the Observer grow on a daily basis. We can’t help but to chuckle when we scan our server logs and notice that some of our most dependable traffic comes from our competitors.

Our Web team is continuously looking for ways to make our site more useful and user friendly. Most recently we’ve added free classifieds to our online home. Readers now have the ability to advertise or sell almost anything online. Users have the ability to post as much or as little information as they wish – depending upon comfort levels. We respect your privacy and have provided users with the ability to be contacted anonymously via email by prospective buyers. The free classifieds also have a section for public announcements and it’s a great place to get free advertising for your club or organization’s upcoming event. Additionally we’ve created a place to post dates, times, and other news for Kingston’s many houses of worship.

Other online popular features include a real-time five-day weather forecast for Kingston and the South Shore. We also have an online phone directory search for every phone number in town (log on and enter your name to see if your phone number is listed). If entertainment is your thing we have the dates, times, and ratings of every movie playing at Independence Mall. Parents are invited to check it out to find out what kids are really watching. The Observer also has a fully functioning set of community bulletin boards which allow for a user to either post anonymously or become a registered member of the community.

Folks have told us they get a kick out of seeing banner ads online for local businesses. Each advertiser’s banner links to their website – if they have one. Along with traffic, our online site grows steadily. Today we can boast of over a thousand pages of online copy with more being added on a weekly basis.

Enjoy! The best is yet to come. Have a great year!