Headline Surfer graphics / The snapshots at left show the Internet newspaper had 122 people online tonight at the same time at 9:35 p.m.
The nearer snapshot shows 256 people online at10:51 p.m. Thursday after we ran a story on Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Danica Patrick.
DAYTONA BEACH -- Operating a small 24/7 Internet newspaper with very limited advertising has blessings and curses. First, a blessing: The belief in God and the talent instilled to steer this endeavor for nearly five years now.
A curse: The sheer volume of interest is beyond my budgeting capability and it's not getting any easier. The better the editorial presence, the stronger the public interest and it's growing. There's no better testament to that than the Speed weeks and Daytona 500 coverage with readership from around the world, which blew up the database -- way too many visitors.
I'm he first to admit, because this is a small operation, I have to do pretty much everything to keep it going day to day. It's like a cat and mouse game with municipal and county government.
The message goes like this: "Report what we like and we'll reward you. Otherwise, we'll shun you." When you are writing something strong that favors them, they'll praise you as a great investigative reporter. Write what they don't want the public to know about and they call you names like "muckraker" or dismiss you sarcastically as "He's just a blogger."
Well, it's true. I am a blogger. And an award-winning blogger at that. No. 1 in the Florida Press Club Awards in the category and the top individual award winner in the state with four overall journalism awards in 2012. But I'm also a metro trained reporter and former city editor with extensive breaking news and investigative reporting experience.
I'm still dealing with being treated as a second-class media outlet by Daytona Beach Police Chief Michael Chitwood because of the fallout of two awards for reporting on his promotion of a captain despite a personnel file thick with complaints of abuse of women cops.
I still have to see what other media outlets are reporting before I can get news about what's happening with crime in Daytona Beach. The city manager is aware of this. He doesn't care. The electeds all say silent. It's even worse n New Smyrna Beach where they have a steady volume of press releases doing the talking.
I've gone before the Daytona city commission. I've met with the mayor and the manager in his office. Nothing has changed. Everybody in government has PR specialists who put out their version of the news.
And government has a carrot at its disposal to keep the media inline: Taxpayer advertising. What has changed since the November elections? Where's the new mantra of cutting government?
I tried to figure out what was happening on the County Council meeting tomorrow.
I can't get a hold of any of the elected officials. It's not for a lack of trying. I've seen more of former County Chair Frank Bruno at all of he big chicken dinner evens in the last few months than I have any of the electeds. And his name is all plastered on the county council agenda a gazillion times.
Every agenda item refers to the "Frank T. Bruno" County Council Chambers. I don't see any references on the agenda to the Nicole Carni SVAA investigation. I don't see any references to the use of CRA taxpayer money supporting public drinking on Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach or Main Street in Daytona Beach. I have lots more videos.
Every agenda item refers to the "Frank T. Bruno" County Council Chambers. I don't see any references on the agenda to the Nicole Carni SVAA investigation. I don't see any references to the use of CRA taxpayer money supporting public drinking on Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach or Main Street in Daytona Beach. I have lots more videos.
There are a lot of important issues and yet I see very little, if any dialogue or initiative. I get lots of press releases, though. Almost as many as I do for junk mail ads for Cialis and Viagra or search engine optimization and adware.
All I can do is to continue reporting the news and hope to get what few crumbs I can manage in advertising. It's tough. I spent more than a thousand bucks on membership and ad directory space with the Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce only to be badmouthed and endure the humiliation of being the only media outlet not recognized as a media sponsor. In the interim, the now defunct weekly Observer print newspaper got tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money from New Smyrna Beach and the News-Journal continues receiving strong advertising support from the municipality as well.
So I joined the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce and for $500, I have some branding. My wife and I worked 18 hours on a video retrospective for the annual dinner, which wasn't used.
We were nominated as one of the four top small businesses of the year, yet there was no presentation or explanation at the dinner. Just popularity contest with text messaging. I was there by myself. They never even announced the totals. I still covered the news of the event, shooting even more videos.
But it's hard to compete when media outlets like the News-Journal which pays $50,000 and has a seat on the executive board and marketing agreements with Brighthouse and Daytona International Speedway.
Even this past weekend at Daytona International Speedway, I had to set up shop in the media center cafeteria while the local paper had upwards of a dozen people in the main media center where they could spread out.
At least I was close to the salad bar. And from what I can see from the reporting, I got out and talked to people in the infield, even if my "cold" press credentials barred me from getting to the news at hand with the big crash.
At least I was close to the salad bar. And from what I can see from the reporting, I got out and talked to people in the infield, even if my "cold" press credentials barred me from getting to the news at hand with the big crash.
So goes the blessings and curses of operating a small Internet newspaper and providing for one's family. But alas, the news continues with what little I have attained.
In the long run, the truth will come out. It always does, and so goes the blessings and curses of new media journalism.