Many thanks to OnTheWight reader Janet Scott for being the first to point out that today, 29th August, is the one year anniversary of the re-branding of VentnorBlog to OnTheWight.
In a world where we are regularly blowing the trumpet of other people’s successes, we hope you don’t think it too immodest for us to say a few words about ourselves.
Continued enhancements
OnTheWight has continued in the vein of covering both hard and soft news on the Isle of Wight, carrying out investigative journalism where it has been required.
We’ve made some changes to the layout and functionality along the way, thanks to feedback from readers, which we hope we’ve been able to address.
Thanks also need to go to CSS master and Ventnor resident Joseph Moore, who has been invaluable in helping to fix some of the bugs that were niggling at us, but beyond our skills to sort.
National recognition
OnTheWight continues to be recognised across the world of Hyperlocal news, being cited at conferences, in government papers, university lectures and even the national press.
The site has grown from its origins of being one of the first UK Hyperlocal sites, via winning the inaugural, Guardian-sponsored, ‘Best UK Hyperlocal Site Award’, growing into what has now been dubbed a ‘Small News Enterprise’.
This exposes OnTheWight and therefore the Isle of Wight on the national stage, for example, when we contributed at the Westminster Media Forum earlier this year, about the future of local media.
Social media fans
We all know that we live in a Social Media age, so it’s pleasing to be alerted to conversations like this between Tim Minogue from Private Eye and BorisWatch.
@TimMinogue I followed @onthewight before it was trendy #hipster #ventnor
— Boris Watch (@BorisWatch) June 6, 2013
Local councillor Chris Whitehouse, who is also the owner of a significant lobbying firm in Westminster, is keen to spread the word too …
If you want a great example of local news site check out http://t.co/1Kqu9GWYk8 best in the biz! @sallyperry @onthewight #IsleOfWight
— Chris Whitehouse (@CllrWhitehouse) August 14, 2013
Connecting businesses to Islanders
We get a big kick out of knowing that we help local businesses to significant numbers of Islanders.
Part of the OnTheWight re-branding was to enable companies to show their wares in more prominent ads on the site. Happily they’ve found the new format very much to their liking. Here’s an example from Church Street Motorcyles, tweeted only yesterday,
Our sales are up by a whopping 25% this year. All we have done different is shift all our advertising to @onthewight – Give them a try!
— Church Street Mc (@ChurchStreetMc) August 28, 2013
Want more business?
If you’ve got a business that would benefit from being exposed to our large Island readership, just get in touch and we can make it happen.
Helping people with a start in journalism
We’ve been pleased to continue to offer opportunities to enthusiastic young adults who want to break into journalism.
What they consistently tell us is that OnTheWight gives them an opportunity like no other publication in the country that they’ve Intern-ed at – they don’t just re-write press released, but get stuck into real stories.
What would you like to see?
We’re planning further enhancements this coming year, but of course, we’re always interested in hearing your idea of what you’ve like to see happen on the Island, especially if you think that we can help. Just drop us a line
Image: Will Clayton under CC BY 2.0
