I had to laugh out loud. I was listening to a conversation between a couple of friends the other day and one referred to the role the Internet will play in the future dissemination of news and information. The other friend stopped him right there and said, “That’s not the future, it’s here now and it looks a lot like A News Café.”
A News Café has no office, no set number of people who participate in its content or production. No topics are forbidden and nothing is a must, except accuracy, of course.
A News Café is not a company where journalists are chained to their desks, pounding out stories on deadline, but rather a place where we — as a community — exchange ideas and talk about local resources. It’s a place where we share what we’ve learned, make suggestions about things that need improvement. It’s a place where we can share the joy when someone in our community succeeds.
To me, A News Café seems more retro than futuristic. It’s reminiscent of a time when sitting out on the front porch — as neighbors walk by and talk about what’s going on in town — was a typical way to wind down a day.
In a nutshell, Food for Thought: A News Café reflects our community. The broad range of contributing writers, readers, commenters and advertisers are our friends and neighbors.
For the past year I have presented quarterly reports about the growing numbers of readers. More readers are coming to this site each day, as you’ll see in the statistics below, but what is emerging is more than just a growing website. What I’m seeing is a community that values an intelligent, articulate dialog about this place we call home.
To all of you who contribute by writing, commenting, reading or advertising, we say thank you. We must be doing something right: The neighborhood real estate is becoming more desirable all the time.
At A News Café we place a high value on giving back to the community. Here are some of the projects in which we’ve recently been involved.
We’ve co-sponsored:
- Sundial Film Festival
- Women’s History Month
- Exposed Dance Project
- Redding Home & Garden Show
- ArtHop
- Dinner & A Movie – The Cascade Theatre
We’ve contributed to:
- Shasta Land Trust
- Local Chapter of the American Cancer Society
- Women’s Refuge
- People of Progress
- Northern Valley Catholic Social Service
- Rotary Club of Redding
Here are the website statistics for the first quarter of 2009:
- Unique Visitors/Numbers of households that read the site each month
As of January 1, 2009: 19,287
As of March 31, 2009: 25,897
Change: +6,610 households (+34%) - Monthly Page Views
As of January 1, 2009: 574,477
As of March 31, 2009: 692,937
Change: +118,460 pages (+20%) - Average number of pages viewed per visit: 12+
Bruce Greenberg is business manager of A News Cafe. By trade he’s an artisan woodworker, creating handcrafted, one-of-a-kind furniture for homes and commercial spaces. He is married to Doni Greenberg.
