This independent news site went live without fanfare in the middle of March 2010. Our first full day saw us attract around 600 page views from curious visitors – our aim then was to see if we could attract a consistent 2000-2500 page views per day.
This independent news site went live without fanfare in the middle of March 2010. Our first full day saw us attract around 600 page views from curious visitors – our aim then was to see if we could attract a consistent 2000-2500 page views per day.
A little over three months later and we felt it appropriate to give our regular visitors, many supporters and site newcomers a glimpse into where we are and where we might be going.
Our average daily page view figure currently sits at 11336, a not inconsiderable number, we attract well over 1000 unique visitors every day. Over 410 people have registered with the site and between them have posted 2734 individual comments.
To date we have achieved a staggering 880,000 page views and confidently expect to hit one million by early July. Many people confuse page views with site hits, they are not the same, however for those interested Newsnet Scotland’s site hits sits at almost 5.5 million.
In short, this news site is in a very healthy state and all without one iota of publicity from anywhere in the main stream media. In fact the BBC have actively sought to limit the impact of this small site by deliberately modifying their software to exclude references to the site in their online blogs.
The future
Newsnet Scotland will continue in its present form for the foreseeable future, however the nature of the feedback from many site visitors and supporters leads us to believe that the site will evolve and improve – so watch this space!!
Research is time consuming and the resources behind the site go only so far. We are currently putting together an article based around the media coverage of the latest recent fiscal surplus revelation, this has involved reviewing the BBC’s output that day, both radio and TV as well as the output from our print media.
We will continue to monitor and review political output from the state broadcaster, we will highlight imbalance and partisan behaviour – it is time consuming.
Also, our recent google-ads experiment was less than successful and we may re-introduce the donation button (Pay Pal problems notwithstanding).
What can you do?
This news site is designed to offer a platform to all Scots, regardless of political persuasion. We are grateful indeed for the generosity of Mr Kenneth Roy over at the Scottish Review who allows us to reproduce his work. We would also like to thank Mr Gerry Hassan, probably Scotland’s foremost political commentator, for kindly allowing us to reproduce articles from his own blog.
We would though like to implore site visitors to consider contributing articles and opinion pieces themselves, they do not have to be political in nature. You may even know someone who is studying journalism, a son, daughter, niece or nephew, the site could be a good place to start and there is no requirement for them to identify themselves.
For anyone concerned about entering their personal details into the contact us or article forms then feel free to use assumed names or even assumed addresses – we have no desire nor need to know your real identity.
However the simplest way to help is by promoting the site. Links in forums, newspaper comments and blogs do help. Tinyurl.com is also a workaround for the BBC online censorship problems. Why not email articles to friends or associates using our icon at the top of articles, this can be done without including your own email address – Newsnet Scotland’s software takes care of the send.
Finally, thanks for taking the time to visit the site – please keep coming back.{jcomments on}