Sometime Wednesday morning, FlaglerLive registered its 500,000th visitor in October. We’ve had good months before, and we’ve been getting well over 400,000 visitors a month for a while now, but this is a new milestone. By the time the month was over we were closer to 550,000. The greater majority of those visitors—and obviously repeat visitors—are in Palm Coast and Flagler.
This happened in a month when we were hacked by a disturbed fanatic somewhere in Turkey, forcing us off line for a few hours. And it happened in a month when we were boycotted by one of those disturbed political groups in town, which clearly helped because our comment section (used by less than 0.5 percent of the readership but read by most) was no longer screeching with their members’ insufferable screeds, which most readers find alienating. The nut jobs gone, more serious readers swarmed.
It also happened toward the end of a year that’s had its challenges. The challenges have been talked about enough. The pleasures not as much, especially from a media perspective. We may live in a small county, but our media are not quite small town, not when we can count on two newspapers, a radio network, at least one television station that has the good sense to keep Jason Wheeler in Flagler, and of course that website. Neither FlaglerLive nor this county would be nearly as interesting if it weren’t for that collection of media outlets that help enrich our communities and keep institutions and each other on their toes. The same day FlaglerLive broke 500,000, Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts in his speech at City Hall’s groundbreaking focused on the city’s rich diversity. The diversity in media and the local perspectives they enable, from all political and other stripes, should be equally celebrated.
I’m sure we all love to compete, to be first with a story, to get unique interviews. But I wouldn’t want a Flagler without the News-Journal’s Tony Holt and Julie Murphy, whose scoops also mean FlaglerLive can take a breather on some stories, or that old horse Aaron London, or the Observer’s Brian McMillan  and Jonathan Simmons. (I’d steal Simmons for FlaglerLive if I had the money.) Then there’s Ron Charles, the news director at WNZF and the most generous newsman I know. He takes after his boss, David Ayres.
But love fests aside, it’s also a no-brainer that news media are changing so rapidly that even today’s media landscape will look like something from the Jurassic 10 years from now. We’re living a mass extinction with only one certainty: the survivors will have to contend with the web, not the other way around. On Tuesday the Alliance for Audited Media released its latest circulation figures for newspapers across the land. What we learned is that on weekdays, the News-Journal circulates just 10,000 copies in Flagler. That includes all those freebies they give away at hotels and in schools to pad their numbers. It doesn’t tell you whether people are actually reading the paper, or what’s left of it.
I’m not knocking other media. I grew up reading newspapers. My journalism school was reading the New York Times every morning on the Number 7 line on my way to school. I wouldn’t be a fraction of the reporter I am now without the 21 years I spent in newspapers, and I dread the day when journalism will be dominated by reporters without newspaper training, though even today newspaper editors have become too harried and driven by the wrong metrics—slavishness to advertisers leads the list—to properly train and trust their reporters. Nostalgia won’t save the industry anymore than stifling pay walls, which have more similarities with the Berlin Wall (or its degenerate stepchild along the US-Mexico border) than newspaper publishers care to admit.
Print still has a solid following among people who remember watching black and white TV. But there’ll come a point when its built-in overhead and untimeliness will make it unsustainable. Dead trees, massive presses, delivery fleets, newsrooms still modeled after Mencken’s day when a story could mature over days instead of hours, are media’s equivalent of whale oil around the time of Edwin Drake’s drill for petroleum. Newspapers may exist for years yet, but not as mass-market products.
I’m also relatively certain that a few years from now I’ll be back here celebrating 1 million readers a month. I’m almost as certain that, much as I regret it, I’ll have a few but not as many colleagues in print. But by then at least one or two of them will be able to count on a job at FlaglerLive.
The business of news is itself changing, with the non-profit model somewhat buffered against market pressures becoming increasingly visible—from national sites like ProPublica to statewide sites like the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, to local sites like Broward Bulldog and FlaglerLive. I’m happy to say that we finally got our own non-profit designation from the IRS, making all your contributions tax-deductible (retroactive to 2010, if you’re a long-time donor).
So by all means: support FlaglerLive’s independent journalism. It’s been a great month. Help us make subsequent months even greater. You’ll be shaping the future of news. And we thank you, readers, wherever you may be and whenever you may click.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here or follow him on Twitter @PierreTristam.
Jan Reeger says
Congratulations Pierre !
Anonymous says
Congrats Pierre , I hope your making some money for your great effort
JoJo says
Continued self-esteem to Messrs Tristam and Flagler Live. We sometimes take Flagler Live for granted for all you do and report. We are indebted for your service to report on stories no one else takes on. You are to be commended and wish you many years ahead to inform the citizens of Flagler County. What a great service you provide – Thank You sir.
Yellowstone says
Pierre-
This is a giant milestone and an honor to share your views; as well as the views of your readers. thank the good graces for an exceptional country like our’s that allows ‘freedom of the press’.
May FlaglerLive forever last – “No Bull, No Fluff, No Smudges, Our news source for Flagler, Florida and Beyond”
Yellowstone
Concerned says
What’s that quote, something about the best of times and worst of times… Been kind of a roller coaster year for you, Pierre. So glad the good times are back – you so deserve the kudos; your perseverance is coming to fruition. Congrats!
Outsider says
Congratulations, Pierre! I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve a Dom Perignon level journalist such as yourself, but thankfully we’ve got you. Your articles are timely, interesting and relevant on a local and national level. As a Limbaugh listening, Hannity watching right wing conservative you piss me off on occasion, but I keep coming back, which must mean you’re doing something extraordinary. I truly respect what you are doing here, and this may make you (and the Ronald Reagan Republicans) cringe, but you are, in my opinion, a great American. Keep up the great work.
John F. Pollinger says
Well Done, Pierre, well done.
rickg says
Glad to hear that so many are reading the good stories found here. I too grew up reading newspapers and continue to do so. But alas I too see the future and the future does not include newsprint.
Ron R. says
^5 Pierre!
Brad says
Congratulations and great job! I for one am certainly glad you are here and love the reporting. I remember a few years ago when the economy seemingly wiped us from the map when it came to news coverage. We had no one really. It became about word of mouth. We are seeing first-hand today the repercussions of that because of how easily an individual manipulate a community in the political landscape when there is no news media.
Thank you for all you do.
m&m says
Congrats Pierre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You work 24/7 at keeping us informed.. Thanks again..
Ron says
And if you weren’t so “liberal” in your writing, you would have 5 million viewers by now !
Jim O says
Congrats Pierre.. Well done.
Would like to see you shift a bit toward center if that is possible at all.
Lin says
Congratulations
It’s amazing sometimes the info you get
I know why everyone is reading
I try not to, but you got me ;)
KMedley says
What a wild ride it has been and I for one am happy to have held on and enjoyed the scream! Thank you for all of your hard work and the many stories.
confidential says
Good local media information source…and hope for many years to come. Congratulations!
Anita says
You serve a great need in this community, Pierre and you do it so well that even people who don’t necessarily share your views make a point of reading Flagler Live. Keep up the good work.
Karen B. says
Refreshing way to report the news & let people participate. The different views of everyone & allowing them to voice opinions is wonderful. Sometimes it’s a real eye opener. Congrats!
Seminole Pride says
Congratulation Pierre, Lighten up on the liberal stand, This is the South.
Sherry Epley says
CONGRATULATIONS Wonderful Pierre! Thank you for your guiding light through the fog of fear based bias in this ultra conservative part of Florida.
May I encourage all those who enjoy Flaglerlive to support the vitality of this amazing enterprise by subscribing/contributing to keep Flaglerlive as part of the future of Flagler county. We can all do this together!
Again. . . thank you so much, Pierre! Very,very well done!
Outsider says
What else could it be but “fear-based bias?”
TomC says
We are very lucky to have you…and your obviously proficient staff.
THANK YOU.
FlaglerMom says
Congratulations Flagler Live! Clearly, you are a powerful voice for Flagler County and one to be reckoned with on multiple issues.