BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE AUTAUGA NEWS OWNER, FOUNDER
Here is a peek at our activity and reach for the past 28 days. Safe to say our small, but mighty group, of EAN employees have been a bit busy.
I just wanted to reach out and remind all of you of a few things. We are YOUR community newspaper, available through our website at elmoreautauganews.com and Facebook primarily.
We invite YOU to use our platform to advertise your business, your good news and your upcoming events.
Too often we find out about an upcoming event after that fact. Please, never assume we know about your upcoming event. If it is something you want the public to know about, we are the place to send the information if it is happening in Autauga or Elmore counties. True story.
We have a big and growing following. But we want to continue to grow, to continue bringing you real, fact-checked, unbiased news, good and bad. So, please….you can reach me directly at editorsarah@yahoo.com. There is no charge to publicize your event. We want YOUR news. Especially your good news.
The bad news comes uninvited.
So, if you are new to the EAN, please like or follow our Facebook page. Go to our website and subscribe to the email list and receive updates. Check the page often, as we have a 24-hour news cycle. (The bags under my eyes confirm it.)
Back on April 1, 2015 I made a decision to remove myself from the corporate media world. I now have almost 40 years in this business as a reporter, editor, managing editor, advertising salesperson and newspaper owner.
But on that day, I had enough of how the media manipulates the public. So, I decided to “retire.” (I laugh at that now.)
I created a simple Facebook page, thinking I would just write a couple of features a week, just to keep my hands in the business. I knew by the age of four what I wanted to do when “I grew up.” My mother had recorded me at that age interviewing my stuffed animals. In 1990 I graduated with a BS in journalism studies from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana.
My decision to start a small Facebook news page as a hobby was a great case of “man plans and God laughs.” The page had 1,000 likes in two days, and it hasn’t slowed down much. We soon created a website, which is our primary vehicle to distribute news.
Photographer Bob Ealum and I began covering what we could. Over time other people came and helped along the way to cover stories.
Several years ago, Carla Wilson, then the owner of the River Region News, sat down with me and a partnership was formed. She brought in her advertising expertise, combined it with my news experience and we began offering advertising to accompany the news. This has allowed us to hire more people and cover a broader area of news.
But we are nowhere near where we could be. My dream is to have 10 fulltime reporters. We miss a lot, just because we are so short-staffed at the moment. Advertising matters. Your likes, follows and shares help tremendously. While we cannot attend every public meeting or event, we encourage you to submit press releases and plenty of photos. YOUR news matters.
We have an amazing readership, proven by the graphic which accompanies this article. This week one story garnered over 40,000 views in a very short amount of time, and temporarily crashed our website. We are working on expanding our website. So, believe me, people are reading the EAN. We are a lEAN, mEAN, News Machine, I like to say.
We hope to hear from you in the future! You can message our page or our website, but honestly, I check my email far more than anything else. That is the best way to get to me and have quick results.
If you are in need of advertising, you can reach out to the Facebook Page or our website and talk with Carla Wilson or Heather Knight. The office number is 334.285.1299. We are located in Millbrook off Main Street in the AirNow parking lot. Please call before you come by, as we are often out in the office. Trust me, we are working.
We love our readers and advertisers. We are not concerned with being the FIRST to bring you the fact-based news locally, but most of the time we do. I am much happier to be second and CORRECT.
We are working on an EAN Open House soon, so stay tuned for more details. We will have some door prizes, food, and an opportunity to meet YOU, our readers.
Today our EAN family consists of myself, Carla Wilson, Heather Knight, Bob Ealum, Amanda Pevey, Margie DiGiovanni and Scott Nickerson. We are currently searching for a writer to cover more events and meetings in Autauga County. Email me with your writing experience if this appeals to you. You can work your own hours and will be paid per article.
We really want to have better contact with our readers and the communities within Autauga and Elmore counties.
So, stay tuned! We will have more information on the Open House to come soon. We would love our advertisers to take part!
Thank you for all your support, likes, comments, shares and advertising. Those likes, follows, shares and comments really do matter and help us grow.
