With tremendous growth in our Google Analytics and social media contacts on Facebook, we are expanding our coverage of NSBNews.net to eventually include seven Central Florida Counties: Besides Volusia, we'll have Brevard, Seminole, Orange, Putnam, Flagler and St. Johns.
We can't be everywhere, but we can certainly provide news and notes and give a snapshot of events that are breaking, relevant and important to us as a region. Brevard County will be first with emphasis on Mims, Titusville and Merritt Island.
We're also adding the unincorporated Volusia County communities of DeLeon Springs and Osteen. Among the other areas to follow are Seminole County with Sanford, Lake Mary, Oviedo, Altamonte Springs, Casselberry and Longwood; Orange County with Orlando, Winter Park, Windemere and Maitland; Putnam County with Crescent City and Palatka; Flagler County with Bunnell, Flagler Beach and Palm Coast; and St. Johns County with St. Augustine.
With ownership of domain names to 38 communities locked down, we can build regional pages that will eventually lead to people and businesses in those communities each having their on website. That's right; in essence, 38 websites in one.
For example, if you live in Pierson, you could call up PiersonNews.net. In Lake Mary, you'd have the option of calling up LakeMarynews.net. Those in Titusville would be able to access TitusvilleNews.net.
We don't have a lot of resources, but we have a lot of heart, ingenuity and the love of a growing number of people turned off by the traditional print media that tries to have it both ways by putting out web news while forcing you to pay subscriptions for their newspapers.
Having worked for the better part of three decades in print media as a metro breaking news and investigative reporter as well as a city editor, I have a strong foundation on what constitutes news and what really matters to people who call a particular community home.
With print newspapers slowly, but surely dying, I have created new opportunities for myself and my family by taking my journalism skills to the Internet. I haven't looked back since. I have always believed that if I made "the journalism" the top priority, it would build readers and in turn generate advertising.
In this economy, it's very tough to turn a dollar, but I don't need a ton of money to take care of my family. There are a lot of people who believe in me and enjoy reading the stories. Like any small town or city, there are always going to be those who resent or fight the real news. That starts with government and politicians and bureaucrats. They want to control everything, including the media.
In Volusia County, there are two revenue sources where government tries to peddle media influence so they can win over the masses: community development agencies or CRA's and advertising authorities. Then there are the hospitals, the colleges, the utilities, etc. There are those on the government side who are wedded to strong private interests and together they constitute what I call the "power elite."
I would rather have advertising from a dozen small business owners than one corporate entity that would want to exert control.
When I launched NSBNews.net on April 7, 2008, with the help of my dear friend Peter Mallory, we were the first exclusively-online newspaper launched in Florida. Just a few weeks back, Mallory gave us another online first: winning an award from the Florida Press Club for blog writing.
Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will NSBNews.net. We understand we need to be patient and keep our eyes on the prize -- a newspaper website where journalism lives. Thank you and God bless.
