When I started wiK, 10 months 2 weeks 5 days ago (April 2010), I had no idea what would happen and how much interest it would create. I hadn't heard of Hyperlocal or Citizen Journalist - but I do now and so it seems does everyone else. I've met with the BBC in Coventry and now in a few weeks it will be the BBC in Birmingham (I am not allowed to talk about that at this stage).
In this short post, all I want to say is I started this site about Kenilworth, but as you have read, it has spread to many Warwickshire issues. I have started whatsinWarwick.com and have plans for other Warwickshire Towns. But for now, I am mindful that the County is suffering and local news papers (you know who you are) are not asking the right questions and not sending the reporters to cover the events that matter. I'm also amazed at how slow other news organisations are - they are suffering too. As someone said to me a few weeks ago, What I like about your site is that it's informative and not about you. - I will take that as a compliment.
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My only concern with launching numerous 'whatsin........' sites for each town in Warwickshire is that you'll be biting off more than you can chew. For a news blog to be successful, you'll need plenty of new content on a frequent basis, and are you going to be able to sustain that if you (potentially) are doing sites for Atherstone, Kenilworth, Leamington Spa, Nuneaton, Rugby, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick?
ReplyDeleteI think a 'whatsinwarwickshire' site would be far better. We can sometimes be a bit insular about our towns, and a site that covered more than just a five mile radius may actually encourage us to understand and involve ourself in more things in other parts of the county.
My other request would be to resist including Coventry. As a county, I sometimes think that we're in the shadows of our city neighbour, and a news blog that was unashamedly Warwickshire-centric could do much to develop a more distinct identify. 'Warwickshire' needs the spotlight turned on itself for a change, rather than suffer from the local news media's priorities of Coventry, then followed by Warwickshire.
Dan, Thanks for your comments - I never intended this to be a news blog. Rather, just tell people what's in Kenilworth, starting from some walk in shops and businesses. Someone told me not to have a target in mind, but just create something.
ReplyDeleteThen, I saw what pages readers were spending their time on and how much of my content is useful and unique. That has lead me to compete faster and be noticed. So far, I am resisting any advertising as I dislike annoying ads on other sites.
As for Coventry, it sits as a 300k demographic between south and north of the county. I have no intention to report Coventry, but areas such as Policing will be followed as Warks Police have not engaged in mainstream Twitter as yet.
Thanks for your interest, Mike