From $5K to 5.5 Million Views: How CCCNews Revolutionized Journalism in the Gorge
We moved CCCNews to 409 Lincoln Street, The Dalles in May 2021 after seeing a steady increase in readers.
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., Oct. 8, 2024 — A lot has changed in the last four years.
In March of 2020, I was unemployed and looking for a job.
I was pretty scared when The Dalles Chronicle closed.
But I had $5,000 and a big idea. I wanted to provide local honest news in our communities…
TO EVERYBODY!
But how … and make a living?
Here is a comic strip we did for a short while during our first five years of business. We have tried to promote the positive news over the years, looking for those details that makes the Gorge such a wonderful place to live.
News, I felt, was a dinosaur, and we had ridden it into the ground.
But I was wrong.
News is always new and exciting. The problem was the way locals were getting it, er… not getting it.
Fortunately, we — myself, my wife Peggy, and Robin Denning — came upon this idea of online news distributed on social media to reach the entire Gorge. It was kind of the antithesis of what people think about social media - some half-cocked ideas with little fact-checking. Our news was intended to inject some truth into the place where people were reading and highlight the good things happening in our communities.
Melissa Napoli was part of The Fun back in 2020 in CCCNews’ inaugural story. Napoli was part of the Fun Group lighting the star in West The Dalles to give people hope during the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020.
It was a gamble for a 50-year-old.
But it also made a lot of sense because my gut told me cell phones were by far the most popular device for people to get their information.
Turns out we were right.
Here is a screenshot showing CCCNews' analytics for the past four years - it clearly demonstrates that mobile devices - ie smart smartphones, tablets, and iPads are the way most people consume information today. Ads on CCCNews are embedded in our news stories so readers see them when they are getting their local news on these devices.
I’ve been taking photos, writing, and running ever since!
It will be five years this March, and CCCNews is stronger than ever.
Our goal of lifting up all our neighbors and communities with honest local journalism is paying off.
So here’s the part that's even more fascinating.
As of this month, CCCNews has had 5.5 million pageviews and 2.3 million unique visitors on our website with all local news from the mid-Columbia. We are now averaging more than 100,000 unique readers per month.
The proof is in the pudding - here are our numbers since our inception on April 16, 2024. Our arc is falling in 2024 only because we have yet to complete the year. If things go as usual we will set another annual record in views by the end of the year.
Better yet, our advertisers have had some 42 million views - that’s no typo - 42 million during the past four years and some 46,000 clicks to their websites.
Sounds like a lot?
It is.
And it's all provable.
Digital media such as ours is tracked second by second. I can tell you how many people are reading any given story at any time.
I can tell you how many people saw an advertisement on any given day and the number of times the ad was clicked and the reader was taken to that business’ website.
Ads are now being seen minimally 30,000 times per month on our website. I know because I send the ad reports to our clients every month. We track everything.
This is a real example of the ad reports that are sent to advertising customers monthly. The second column shows the ad was viewed 34,798 times by readers. The second column shows our readers clicked on the ad 46 times. Takeaway - this advertiser told the local community they are open and ready to do business 34,000 times, and 46 people went to his website to either find out more or buy his product and service.
It’s an incredibly powerful medium for getting your message out.
And it’s cost-effective, efficient and fast.
We can get stories and ads out in minutes when need be. And, we have low overhead, meaning advertisers benefit from better rates. Annual contracts for digital ads are $275 per month, including design and a link to your website or Facebook page. If you need a landing page, we can help with that as well.
New businesses have had CCCNews write their story and then connect their ad to it.
If you’re business needs more eyes, we can deliver them.
PROMO CODE: 5-Years
Mention this story in an email or a phone call with me and we will cut your annual digital ad rate to $249 per month, saving you $300 for the year.
Give me a call at 541-980-2756 or email tom@cccnews.com
Sincerely,
Tom Peterson
Journalist / Editor / Owner
