To readers of YachatsNews:
It’s been two years since the launch of YachatsNews.com and one year since the last update on how everything has been going on the site and behind the scenes.
So in the interest of transparency and to keep anyone who might care abreast of what happened in 2020 and plans for 2021, here goes.
A look back
Background: I launched the site in January 2019 because I saw the Yachats area as a “news desert” — that is, little to no coverage of the community in coastal newspapers and elsewhere. Rumors, Facebook, and second- and third-hand information seemed to dominate. I wondered how I could best contribute to the community, and came up with the idea of doing what I’ve done for 40 years — report and edit local news. The effort started small and very focused on Yachats. It expanded readership, coverage and interest areas in 2019 and 2020 as I saw and heard what people wanted to read about, but also as I tried to connect the Yachats area to news of Lincoln County and Oregon.
The year of Covid: 2020 was a disaster for most normal people or businesses. But in the news business – even a so-called “micro news” site like this one — it was a pretty successful year.
Popularity of news sites, be they YachatsNews or the New York Times, are measured in “unique visits” and/or “page views” and for many, paid subscribers. YachatsNews, unlike many mainstream news sites, does not charge subscriptions and is not behind a pay wall. It remains first and foremost a community service project.
At the beginning of 2020, the average number of page views at YachatsNews was 15,000 over most 30-day periods – or about 500 a day, spiking on Friday’s when the “featured” story changed and other major content added.
Page views increased slowly last year as the coronavirus hit and more people focused on that. By late May the number of page views had doubled to 30,000 every 30 days, as we increased local and statewide coverage of the pandemic.
Traffic hit a high of more than 60,000 page views a month following the June COVID-19 outbreak at Pacific Seafood in Newport, before tapering down in August and then spiking again to near that again when the wildfires tore through north Lincoln County.
Overall, according to the analytics available for the site from January 2020 to January 2021, individual “sessions” were up 260 percent and page views were up 175 percent.
The overall result is the site has broadened readership, and currently averages about 40,000 page views per 30-day period. That’s an average of 1,300 page views a day.
Money: In January 2019 when I launched YachatsNews, I said that it is intended as a community service project, not a money-making venture. Twice in 2020 I asked for donations – and received good support – because I wanted to stop paying for most everything out of my own pocket (about $4,000 in 2019) and to see if the community would support this effort financially. Many of you did.
Still, this is not a big-budget operation.
Here’s a snapshot of 2020’s finances: Advertising income was $3,858 and donations were $3,745. Expenses – everything from paying freelance reporters to web services, subscriptions, licenses, fees and miscellaneous costs were just over $7,000 – so I was able to stop reaching into my own pocket to pay bills. I count that as good news.
As a reminder, I do not take any money out of the site’s income to pay myself or reimburse my personal expenses like gas or notebooks or printer ink.
I have ongoing expenses and more plans for 2021, so if you want to financially support YachatsNews, there is a donate “button” on the site or you can simply drop a check in the mail to P.O. Box 284, Yachats, Ore. 97498.
Less than success:
- The site is not intended to be 100 percent comprehensive coverage of south Lincoln County. It’s one person plus the help of two great freelance reporters (Cheryl Romano and Dana Tims) trying to bring you what we think are the top stories of the week. But sometimes more urgent news overshadows other community news that needs or should be covered. If we can catch up and get back to it, I try to. If not, we make note and try to make reference to it later.
- Stories we do are not universally loved, but we try to be as accurate as humanly possible, provide context when there is some, and correct our mistakes when they are pointed out to us. We are also always looking for story ideas and if you have some please send them to me at YachatsNews@gmail.com
- In November 2019 YachatsNews launched weekly coastal entertainment and event coverage. That was off to a reasonable start – for the winter – when the coronavirus pandemic hit in March and everything shut down. So did that coverage. When community events resume, YachatsNews plans to re-launch that effort.
Small steps forward:
- The number of people who signed up for Friday morning email blasts of stories posted that week has increased from 500 to 775 the past year. (But remember, the site is updated almost daily with big or small news items.)
- The site added an area for classified advertisements on the home page as a way to help people needing smaller, cheaper ways to connect with people. Here’s a link to a form to submit a classified ad.
- At the suggestion of a reader, the site added a link to National Weather Service reports for the Yachats area, including links to tides and weather data. It’s a small but valuable service.
Immediate plans for 2021:
- I would like to cover the Waldport area more closely, maybe up to Seal Rock, and cover schools better. Although south Lincoln County communities are small and seemingly independent, I believe we are linked by more elements than separate us. To that end, I will be seeking a part-time, paid freelance reporter to help with coverage of the Waldport-Seal Rock area.
The longer future:
Possibly the most significant plan for 2021 is to develop a path for a long-term future for YachatsNews — and to see if the community embraces and supports it.
Here’s the reason: Being under virtual lockdown during the pandemic has enabled me to devote great amounts of time to the news site, but that is not likely sustainable over the next few years. (I’m not a spring chicken and as soon as we can travel more, we will.)
The idea is to see if the south Lincoln County community (and state and national organizations) are interested in this work and will support it enough financially to enable YachatsNews to hire someone to do much of the journalism.
The first step is to transition this year to a charitable nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. This will allow YachatsNews to receive tax deductible donations (large and small) from individuals and apply for grants to support this effort.
A former colleague at The Oregonian is using the YachatsNews model to launch a news site next month in the Cascade mountain community of Oakridge, east of Springfield, where the weekly newspaper recently folded. At my suggestion, his group is going the nonprofit route. Now I intend to follow my own advice.
In addition to filing a bunch of paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service, it will also require a small board of community members to oversee operations and policies.
Hopefully this will be a transition to what I believe is a more sustainable community service model. Stay tuned for developments. And, if you have ideas or suggestions in this regard, please contact me.
OK, that’s enough for now.
If you have thoughts on any of the topics above, please email me at YachatsNews@gmail.com
To donate go here
To seek information about display or classified advertising go here
Thanks for reading, and for any help and support.
— Quinton Smith, reporter/editor/manager/chief bottle washer