By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
I launched YachatsNews.com 13 months ago because after 40 years in newspapers I wanted to contribute to the community in the best way I knew how — and because there was a lack of traditional, community-level news coverage in an area that deserved and wanted it.
It has been a year of growth for the website – and a surprising amount of news.
Since it’s launch, I’ve added a variety of elements to the site. Today I’m introducing some more – and asking for a bit of help.
Here are developments in 2019:
- During the past year traffic to the site has grown to an average of 4,500 users and 21,000 page views a month.
- There have been more than 500 items posted to the site — everything from full-length feature articles and regular news stories, to briefs, breaking news, police reports, letters, calendar items and links to news stories elsewhere that relate to the central Oregon coast.
- More than 475 people have signed up for an email blast each Friday morning updating them about news on the site. (But remember, stories are posted throughout the week.)
- With the help of a full-service agency, YachatsNews started offering advertising in April to help local businesses and organizations get the word out about their services. Here’s a link to advertising information to see if it’s right for you or your business.
- In the fall we started offering space for “Letters to the editor,” obituaries and a special area for police news.
Last January I wrote that the site would be “dynamic” – changing and evolving as we discover what elements work and what didn’t. That still applies. So, today we are introducing:
- A weekly “Entertainment, activity and arts” section. Every other week it will have a feature story about a key event or activity from Lincoln City in the north to Florence in the south, but centering on Yachats. Every week it will offer a “Best Bets” list of top events or activities. Katherine Ljungqvist, a Lincoln County freelance writer, will spearhead that effort. You can email her at Katherine.ljungqvist@gmail.com
- Stories about Oregon government and politics provided by a Salem-based bureau of reporters working for a two news organizations. Those organizations are EO Media, which has 11 newspapers across Oregon, and Pamplin Media, which has 25 newspapers around Portland, in the Willamette Valley and central Oregon. This is intended to fill what I perceive is a vacuum of state government news reaching central Oregon coast residents.
- Last week the site added a link in its menu bar to weather data for Yachats. During a month of near-constant rainfall, it already has proven to be popular.
Now for a bit of an “ask”
The additions and regular, ongoing work takes a small amount of money. In 2019 YachatsNews had $1,300 in net income from advertising but $4,500 in expenses – for website maintenance and development, paying the occasional freelance help, materials, supplies and just the small everyday costs associated with newsgathering.
In order to keep the site filled with local news and entertainment stories, I plan to use more freelance writers this year. I don’t need or want to make money from the site, but I’d like it to break even, even as I add content and expense this year.
Throughout the year I have received many messages of encouragement, appreciation and support. Several people even suggested they would be open to helping the effort financially, in a small way.
So now there is a “Donate” button in the “Menu bar” of the site where you can make a donation through PayPal. You can also just write a check and put it in the mail. That information is also on the “Donate” button.
If donations somehow reach a break-even point I will shut down solicitations until next year.
With the advent of Facebook and other social media sites, people and many businesses are not used to paying for news, information (or misinformation) and services. Most good, traditional news organizations have their content behind pay walls.
While YachatsNews is not perfect or necessarily comprehensive, I believe it offers valuable, local community information and professional journalism. I think there is value in that. Any support you can provide to help YachatsNews break even financially is appreciated.
If you have questions or comments, please you can email me at YachatsNews@gmail.com or simply call me at 503-970-3867. I’d be happy to answer any questions.
Good journalism is the back bone of a democracy. That might sound cliche and overblown but it is the truth. In the U.S., and on social media especially, we seem to have forgotten how important that is.
That being said I would like to thank you for bringing the news to this part of the coast. Until YachatsNews.com showed up rumors were the way information was passed throughout the community. I believe having a local paper or website keeping the citizenry up to date with accurate information is incredibly valuable. The more people know and understand how things truly are the better their decisions will be and the more understanding of one another, I would hope, they become. So thank you for bringing a bit of informational balance into our lives.