By Thomas Palmer
Truth be told, not all businesses – much less local media operations – make it.
In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about one in five businesses in America close within their first year of operation. That rises to a staggering 48.4% within the first five years. Those numbers increase even more when one talks about the information industry.
Yet here at 1812Blockhouse, we’re celebrating our seventh birthday on Friday. We’re really bucking the trends referred to above, which makes sense because we have bucked the system since Day One.
Shortly before we began, I met with a local publisher to tell him what was up. We had met over the period of a few months a couple of years before when the site I owned, GalionLive, was being acquired by that company. We “talked shop” for a few minutes, and I shared my take on local media and what the site would look like.
The vision then, which remains the case today, was to create a single location for consumers of local news and information where they could access original writing combined with links to all other local media. It was a great idea, and it still is. It’s different than Richland Source or the Mansfield News Journal, both of which don’t cover local media news.
We do and I know of no other local site that does things quite the same way.
According to our records, this is the 6,851st story posted on 1812Blockhouse. We have shared multiple series over seven years, from “When Mansfield Welcomed” to “Summer Road Trips”; from “Literary Mansfield” to “Landmarks of Richland County.” There are over 50 entries in our “Landmarks of Mansfield” column alone that regularly provides new takes on old friends. Over the last several weeks, we have embraced artificial intelligence tools with gusto that allow us to provide a wider range of content.
Above all, it’s our readers that make us what we are. It’s a thrill when we get reactions, even when someone points out a typo or fact we have published that could be fine-tuned. Believe it or not, in that seven year period we have had only one single nasty reaction/email (knock on wood).
So, reader, I thank you for your support, however it is given. You make us better and that helps us do our job more professionally and effectively. We think — I think — that that makes Mansfield and Richland County an even better place to live and visit.
