Rye News, the volunteer-run community online weekly newspaper, held its first annual meeting last week as a not-for-profit CIC (Community Interest Company). Launched in March 2014, it started regular publication in May last year, with 48 stories in the first month. More than 1,500 stories in total have now been published.
More than 500 people have signed up to get an alert service telling them about that week’s news (currently being redesigned and revived as volunteers come and go) and Google Analytics figure of 3,098 returning visitors to the website in a month suggests that possibly around 600 regular “readers” may be looking at each issue. However it is also read by over 3,000 new visitors every month, and the number of visitors to the website (first-timers and repeat offenders) each month has more than doubled in the past year – and they make over 6,000 separate visits (or sessions) monthly to the site.
Half those individual visits/sessions are by new first time visitors and half by regular/repeat visitors each month and, as Rye News publishes four to five weekly issues each month, those 3,098 sessions by regular visitors each month may therefore represent around 600 regular readers visiting the site four times a month. However it could also mean there are around 3,000 people who only read Rye News once a month, or 1,500 who read it once a fortnight.
But common sense suggests that regular readers are likely to read a “weekly” each week. though there may be “addicts” like Rye News volunteers who are on the site much more often. However there are “lies, damned lies and statistics” – a quote erroneously attributed to both Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli, but apparently neither said it nor wrote it. Google’s figures also do not always seem to add up as they say 1,983 women read the paper along with 1,954 men which makes a total of 3,937 visitors when Google say only 3,814 per month are visiting our site – but maybe 159 are claiming to be both men and women.
Average monthly searches on Google over the past year for “Rye” or “Rye-linked topics”, via Google adwords, amount to nearly 97,000 with most searches (93%) being just for “Rye” on its own, with three per cent for “Rye East Sussex” and around one per cent each for Rye accommodation (hotels and B&B), Rye events (jazz, arts, scallops and Mapp & Lucia) and for Rye News. The newspaper therefore clearly seems to be part of the area’s marketing outreach to potential visitors – and residents.
Commenting on these figures, Dee Alsey said (on behalf of Rye News): “Festivals and attractions are of real interest to visitors, but we are not yet following this through enough with tourist information and this is something we are addressing. We are discussing how we can support and promote local businesses and tourism – as well as providing a great local online newspaper. And we also need you to join in, volunteer, write, comment, display flyers – and register for the weekly alert if you haven’t yet done so”.
Rye News founder Kenneth Bird said: “The challenges have been many and various – whether it’s been raising the finance, acquiring new technical skills, meeting deadlines, or resolving very human issues of co-operation – but we’ve come a long way since then. Six pages in “Fixtures” gives us a hard copy presence with the 7,000 households that this publication reaches and we’ve enjoyed the support of many contributors. Thank you all.”
“We can do more though” he added ” to act as a platform for voluntary organisations and to promote Rye as a town and a tourist destination and we need to be constantly renewing our team if we are to survive. So we need to hear from you about who you know, what you know, and what you can do”. To contact Rye News, use the “GET IN TOUCH” button on every page.
Rye News Editor. Photo – Ray Prewer