thebatavian

WBTA and The Batavian will bring you a series of candidate forums over the next couple of days.

Starting tonight, Dan Fischer and I will host a series of Q&A sessions with the City Council candidates and the candidates for competitive County Legislature seats at the WBTA studios.

We will interview the candidates in pairs. 

These sessions are not debates, but rather an opportunity to have a discussion about the important issues in the city and the county.

Tonight and tomorrow night, we will interview the candidates and the interviews will be broadcast unedited tomorrow and Friday. We've also hired Ethan Thompson to videotape the interviews, and the video will be available on The Batavian as soon as the tapes are properly processed for downloading on the web (as always, via YouTube).

Here's the schedule of interviews:

Wednesday, Oct. 14:
7:00 p.m.: Sara Burk-Balbi and Marianne Clattenburg
8:00 p.m: Frank Ferrando and Phil Ricci
These two interviews will air on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 10 a.m. on WBTA.
 
Thursday, Oct. 15:
7:00 p.m.: Julie Wallace and Tim Buckley
7:30 p.m.: Chris Charvella and Hollis Upson
8:00 p.m.: Rose Mary Christian and Robert Radley
These three interviews will air on Friday, Oct. 16 at 10 a.m. on WBTA.

If there are questions you think I should ask, please submit them in comments below.

Brittany Baker, who signed on as a correspondent with The Batavian this summer, starts work today in the newsroom of the Daily News. We're happy for Brittany. She's an ambitious young journalist. She did a terrific job for us and we're sure she has a bright career ahead of her. Both Billie and I are grateful to Brittany for all of her work.

Meanwhile, we have two new interns starting today.

Amy Weidner completes a bachelor's degree in broadcast communications at SUNY Brockport in December. She's focused on pursuing a career in news media. Amy grew up in Genesee County and currently lives in Batavia. She's a 2005 graduate of Oakfield-Alabama High School. Amy's primary beat during her internship will be Le Roy.

Ethan Thompson is a high school student who is home schooled. We first became aware of Ethan in April when Tasia did a profile of him and his entrepreneurial activities. Ethan describes himself as a "teenage entrepreneur." He likes to write, read and produce videos and he's very much into computers. He runs his own media company, Just Passing Thru Productions. He also owns and runs Youth in Action Mag, a site for Christian teens. Ethan, an Oakfield resident, will be producing news and feature videos, primarily about community events, for The Batavian during his internship.

As for our other correspondents, Gretel Kauffman is back in school, but may make an occasional contribution, and Tasia Boland has been busy with some good changes in her life, but she plans to start writing again soon.

Thank you for your support of The Batavian. It's gratifying to both Billie and I (and Pachuco) to get all the positive feedback we get from readers.  We are continually amazed at how many people start raving about The Batavian when they meet one of us for the first time.

But, of course, without local businesses supporting The Batavian, we couldn't do this. 

If you enjoy The Batavian, if you visit the site regularly and consider it an important part of how you stay involved and informed about your community, please patronize The Batavian's sponsors -- and let them know it.

Here is the current list of sponsors:

Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle
Affordable Floor Covering
Alex's Place
Amelia's Antiques and Collectibles
Anglican Community Church
Barrett's Batavia Marine and Sporting Supplies
Batavia Cycle Center
Batavia Downs Casino
Batavia Muckdogs
Blue Pearl Yoga
Bonarigo & McCutcheon
Carlson's Studio
Castilone Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep
Cedar St. Sales and Rentals
Center of Attention Auto Spa
Center Street Smokehouse
Charles Men's Shop
Clor's Meat Market
The Color Salon
D&R Depot Restaurant
D'n'R Fireplaces and Stoves
Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern
Diegelman Plumbing
The Enchanted Florist
Fastec Automotive
Genesee County Red Cross
Genesee Feeds
Great Kutz
Herbly Wonderful
Holland Land Office Museum
Jackson St. Grill/Belladessa's
Kravings Kafe
The Insurance Center
Lewis and Lewis
Main St. Pizza Company
The Mane Attraction
The Manor House
Matteo & Mullen, CPA
Matty's Pizzeria
Max Pies
O'Lacy's Irish Pub
Oliver's Candies
Optique
Pauly's Pizza
Pellegrino Auto Sales
Picasso's Pizza
Present Tense Books
Pudgie's Lawn and Garden Center
Reeb Family Moving
Roxy's Music Store
Settler's Family Restaurant
South Main Country Store
Southside Deli
Sport of Kings
Suzanne Interiors
T.F. Brown's
Total Image Hair Salon
T-Shirts Etc.
Valle Jewelers
Vintage & Vogue Inspirations

This is why thebatavian is working.

Every two years, the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce releases a map of the area that helps promote local businesses.

This year, The Batavian will handle the ad sales, which helps support the Chamber and pays for a valuable resource for travelers and residents alike.

As always, the up-to-date color map will be produced by Rochester-based Map Works, Inc.

More than 12,000 copies will be distributed throughout Genesee County in 2010 and 2011.

Local businesses interested in this promotional opportunity should contact Howard Owens at 585-260-6970.

The Batavian is doing very well these days. It's gratifying for both Billie and I that we're growing our own business.

But the revenue so far goes primarily to our living and operational expenses. There isn't much left over to buy new computers or cameras.

For example, I have a nice video camera, but a better one would be most helpful. There are also times where photography requires more than just a point-and-shoot camera, so a good SLR camera would be helpful. And, importantly, software upgrades -- improvements to the site -- cost money, and usually significant amounts of money.  Finally, my MacBook Pro is now older than its extended warranty. At some point, it will need to be replaced.

To help with these needs, we've created "The Batavian Capital Expense Fund" (CapEx funds in business are for investments into the business).

I'm hitting up my colleagues in the online-news business across the Net for donations, but we didn't want to go to the readers of The Batavian and ask for donations without offering something of value in return.

Our offer: T-shirts for "The Batavian."

T-Shirts, Etc. will print the T-shirts for us, and all you you need to do to get your T-shirt is make a donation of $20. We will mail the T-shirt to the address associated with your PayPal account.

Or, you can mail a check for $20 to The Batavian, 200 E. Main St., #5, Batavia, NY 14020.

Whether donating via check or PayPal, please specify the size of the shirt you want.

If you enjoy The Batavian, and would like to see the site or our coverage improve, please consider this small donation that will also net you a nice T-shirt!

It's a common question people ask me: "Why Batavia?"

People often want to know how I wound up in Batavia with this crazy idea of launching an online-only news site.

It all started the second weekend of September 2006, my first weekend as a Western New Yorker, when, after spotting a notice in a garden magazine, I decided to drive out to Batavia for the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County’s Master Gardeners'  annual Fall Harvest Gala.

In California, I began growing roses as a hobby and was eager to continue growing roses, even though my new job was bringing me to the Rochester area. 

I had just completed my first week in my new job and was living in a hotel in Fairport. I had no idea how far Batavia was from Fairport, but I jumped in my rental sedan, punched the address into the GPS and off I went.

When I hit town, I was immediately smitten. Here was a small town that struck me as what small town should be. There were cool old buildings, lots of local businesses, nice Victorian-era houses and it just seemed like a place where some sense of community still existed.

I didn't see the warts that so many often note, and I still don't much see them.

I thought, "I'd rather live here than Fairport."  

But, my company's office was in Fairport and I've never been a fan of long commutes.

So we wound up living in Pittsford, but I didn't forget Batavia.

When my bosses asked me to come up with a plan for launching an online-only news site, Batavia was my first choice. After a few more scouting trips out to Genesee County, I felt confident Batavia was the right-sized town with a vibrant local business community. 

I was actually a bit disappointed that I couldn't move to Batavia to run the project. I still had other job responsibilities in Fairport.

Then an amazing thing happened: The Batavian was mine, if I wanted it. Of course, that would mean moving to Batavia. That was fine with me and Billie. We moved to Batavia on June 1, glad to be out of the rat race and eager to be entrepreneurs.

We're quite happy with our life here. It's the kind of small-town life we long sought but could never find in California. We're grateful to all the readers and sponsors of The Batavian. You're helping us live "life as it should be" (the link is an irony hint; we previously lived in Bakersfield).

And here's how four of my rose bushes are faring in Batavia.

Here's the most viewed posts for August 2009.

• Blink 182 show at Darien Lake leads to 16 arrests
• St. Nick's closing its doors, by Brian Hillabush
• Children on assistance eligible for $200 in back-to-school aid
• 23 people arrested at Lil' Wayne concert at Darien Lake
• Harley-riding Border Patrol agents pass through Batavia, visit Stan's Harley
• Eleven arrests reported at Phish concert at Darien Lake
• Eric Massa, by Peter O'Brien
• Drunken driving suspected in Darien accident that kills Dansville girl
• The public should know the details of union settlement well before vote
• The Political Spectrum Quiz, by Bea McManis

Here's the most viewed video in August (Man airlifted from accident on Route 5, Le Roy, by Mercy Flight):

In August The Batavian had 38,057 unique visitors. That's up from 36,268 in July.

It's the third straight month of record traffic growth for The Batavian, and fourth straight month of increasing traffic.

Before the current growth spurt, The Batavian's record traffic month was February when the site had 28,030 unique visitors. March was down slightly, but we've had an upward trend going since.

A unique visitor, as measured by Google Analytics, is one visit by one person (or more accurately, one computer) within the given time frame. It's the closest count available to say how many people visited a Web site in a given month. 

The Batavian launched May 1, 2008.

In August 2008, The Batavian had 5,359 unique visitors.

The other primary metrics we track are visitors and page views. A visit is a count of each time various individuals visit the site. One person (or computer) can account for numerous visits.  A page view is a count of each time a page of the site is opened in a browser window.

In August, The Batavian notched 131,763 visits, up from 121,708 in July.

August page views were 292,176, up from 285,671 in July.

So, help us keep the trend going. Wouldn't it be great to top 40,000 unique visitors and 300,000 page views in September?

Here's what you can do to help:

• Tell a friend you've never told before about The Batavian. Tell them what you like about the site.
• Include a note about The Batavian in your organization's newsletter.
• Stop by our office (200 E. Main St., #5) and pick up a bumper sticker for your car (we have some setting outside our door if nobody is in the office when you come by).
• Use the "E-mail a Friend" link on posts to send something you find interesting to a friend(s).
• If you're not already a daily visitor, become a daily visitor. We do update the site frequently and every weekday and usually on Saturdays and Sundays.

Thank you all for your support of The Batavian. Please take a look at all of the sponsors' ads on the site, and please support those businesses and let them know you saw their ad on The Batavian. If you're a fan of The Batavian, supporting our sponsors is critical to keeping it going.

Let's meet up at Dwyer Stadium Thursday and take in the greatest show in town -- a Batavia Muckdogs baseball game.

The game against the Auburn Doubledays is the next to last home game of the season, and I have free tickets available.

Between what the Muckdogs gave me for advertisers' appreciation night (because The Batavian was a sponsor this year) and the unused season tickets I have -- I have 28 tickets available.

E-mail me your request for tickets and we can either arrange for you to stop by the office to pick them up or meet me before the game and I'll give them to you.

Game time is 7:05 p.m. and my e-mail address is howard (at) the batavian dot com.

Request as many tickets as you like, just make sure you can use them. First come, first served.

I usually set in the third-base bleachers and you're welcome to join me for the game. Heck, I might even let you buy me a beer.

A "rural justice attitude" will prevent at least one of the defendants in the June 18 Elba bank robbery from getting a fair trial in Genesee County, according to Batavia defense attorney Thomas Burns.

Burns is defending Matthew J. Wells, who is accused, along with two other men from Buffalo, of robbing the M&T Bank branch in Elba, making off with at least $10,000 in cash, and then leading local law enforcement on a five-hour manhunt (with Wells being the final suspect caught).

In papers filed Thursday, Burns cites extensive media coverage of the robbery and manhunt, with special attention on The Batavian, as part of his change of venue motion.

Comments made by readers on The Batavian, as well as quotes from local law enforcement officials cited in coverage on The Batavian, indicate, according to Burns, that local jurors would be prejudiced against his big city client.

Among the five reader comments Burns includes in his brief is this one by Jeff Allen left the day after the robbery:

"Let's give major kudos to our local law enforcement agencies. The fact is these thugs thought that driving out to a hick town near a Thruway exit would be an easy knock off and escape back to the city. They got a quick introduction to rural justice. The only question that loomed yesterday was who would get them first, the police or a ticked off land owner with a shotgun! Great work everybody (Howard included), you did our area proud!"

Burns also cites quotes from Chief Jerome Brewster of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office and District Attorney Lawrence Friedman in The Batavian suggesting the suspects thought a rural bank might make an easy target.

His change of venue motion rests on three key points:

• Intense media saturation coverage in a small, rural community with "sensationalized reports" combined with instantaneous and interactive technologies.
• Lack of racial diversity in Genesee County (only 2.6 percent of the population is African-American).
• The fact that some 30 to 35 percent of the people living in Genesee County were directly impacted by events that day, primarily because of the BOCES-imposed school lock down.

But it's the news coverage of The Batavian, and the comments on posts, that take up the bulk of the motion by Burns.

The attorney argues that the nature of media has changed, making the case for venue change even more compelling. The last change of venue granted was made by a local appellate court in a 1983 murder case. The trial was moved from Livingston County to Monroe County out of concern for "rural justice" attitudes and local media coverage.

"It is submitted that widespread use of internet news services will require courts to carefully assess the impact of instantaneous news reporting from on-line news services upon small rural counties reacting to high-profile crimes," Burns writes.

"It is reasonable to conclude that the Fourth Department Justices grappling with the Acomb, supra, decision in 1983 would have found the extent of localized publicity significantly increased had that decision been made after 1992, when the internet became widely accessible to the public, and even more so today where internet news sources saturate homes and businesses with instantaneous news of local concern and provide interactive content with subscribers and readers. Of the news services cited herein only the traditional print media and Time Warner services require reader/viewers to pay a fee. 'The Batavian' cited at length in this affirmation is available 24 hours per day without fee. In contrast, in Acomb, it is believed that media resources were exceedingly limited when compared to today's media outlets."

Burns also cites "extensive negative press" following bail review hearings for co-defendants Demone Dillon and Dennis Abrams as the reason he didn't seek bail for his client. Both Dillon and Abrams were offered bail of $250,000 and bond of $500,000 following hearings in which both defense attorneys and the prosecution discussed details of the cases at length. Following both hearings, written and verbal confessions were made available in the public case files. The Batavian reported details of the June 18 events from these sources.

District Attorney Lawrence Friedman said he doesn't believe Burns will win his motion and that it's premature for a change of venue motion because jury selection hasn't even started yet.

"Normally, you wait until you select a jury and then document the difficulty in doing so because of pre-trial exposure," Friedman said.

Friedman, who said he regularly follows local law enforcement cases on The Batavian, said it's rare for media coverage to impact the ability of attorneys to impanel an impartial jury and that it's too soon to say if new media is going to make that job harder.

Burns agreed that it may seem early to file a change of venue motion, but he said court rules compel him to file all of his motions within a certain time frame. In order to preserve the rights of his client, he said, he had to file the motion before today.

On behalf of Wells, Burns filed several other motions Thursday, including one to suppress any statements Wells made after his arrest.

Burns contends that Wells was not read his rights for more than two hours after his arrest. During that time, Burns states, Wells expressed a desire to remain silent and to speak to an attorney, but investigators kept pressing Wells to talk. Wells was arrested at 2:51 p.m., but it wasn't until 5:35 p.m., when a written confession was placed before Wells to sign, that he was read his Miranda rights.

Burns also claims there is a lack of reliable eyewitness testimony to place Wells at the Elba bank. The witnesses can only describe the robbers as black, Burns contends, and cannot positively identify Wells as one of the men inside the bank.

These facts call into question the evidence provided to the Grand Jury that led to the indictment of Wells on the bank robbery charges.

Burns also tipped his hand on a possible defense. Wells, in his defense, will assert "lack of knowledge and understanding of the criminal activity as a result of duress or improper influence by one or both of the co-defendants."

The change of venue motion was filed with the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department. The other motions were filed with Judge Robert Noonan in Genesee County. Noonan will hear arguments for the motion at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 8. There's no word on when the appellate division might issue its ruling.

Previously:

• Manhunt in progress near Townline and 63
• Elba robbery suspects identified, arraigned and held without bail
• 'I messed up,' Elba robbery suspect texted wife while hiding from police
• Third suspect in Elba robbery enters not guilty plea
• Elba robbery defendant reportedly sterling citizen prior to alleged crime
• Suspects didn't know what they were getting into when they chose Genesee County
• Two Elba robbery suspects to answer to charges in court tomorrow
• Alleged Elba bank robbers indicted by grand jury

It's exceptionally gratifying to meet people who love The Batavian. It's common for me to attend a public event and meet people who say, "I love your site. I visit it several times a day to find out what's going on."

So I have a request for all the readers who love The Batavian: Support our sponsors. Without them -- 51 of them now -- there is no local news site like The Batavian.

Please patronize The Batavian sponsors first, and when you do, it is exceptionally important that the owners or managers know that you saw their ad on The Batavian. Please tell them, "Thank you."

Here is a list of our sponsors:

Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle
Affordable Floor Covering
Alex's Place
Amelia's Antiques and Collectibles
Angelican Community Church
Barrett's Batavia Marine and Sporting Supplies
Batavia Cycle Center
Batavia Downs Casino
Batavia Muckdogs
Blue Pearl Yoga
Bonarigo & McCutcheon
Carlson's Studio
Cedar St. Sales and Rentals
Center of Attention Auto Spa
Center Street Smokehouse
Charles Men's Shop
D'n'R Fireplaces and Stoves
Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern
Diegelman Plumbing
Eclectic Creations
The Enchanted Florist
Fastec Automotive
Genesee County Red Cross
Genesee Feeds
Godfrey's Pond
Herbly Wonderful
Holland Land Office Museum
Jackson St. Grill/Belladessa's
The Insurance Center
Larry's Steakhouse
Lewis and Lewis
Main St. Pizza Company
The Mane Attraction
The Manor House
Max Pies
O'Lacy's Irish Pub
Oliver's Candies
Pellegrino Auto Sales
Picasso's Pizza
Present Tense Books
Pudgie's Lawn and Garden Center
Reeb Family Moving
Roxy's Music Store
Settler's Family Restaurant
South Main Country Store
Southside Deli
Sport of Kings
T.F. Brown's
Total Image Hair Salon
T-Shirts Etc.
Valle Jewelers

The Batavian continues to grow. Most recently, we've been fortunate enough to meet up with three young women who aspire to careers in journalism, but are just starting out and are looking for more experience -- and they also believe that Web journalism is the way of the future. They all are big fans of The Batavian, so they stepped forward to offer to help with local news coverage.

We're not yet to the point of hiring staff writers, but we asked them if they would take on the volunteer role of "correspondent" and either cover a beat or be available for occasional assignments.

Tasia Boland should be a familiar name to long-time readers of The Batavian. She was an intern for us last semester and after taking a break, she's back with The Batavian covering a variety of assignments. Tasia is originally from Wisconsin, but moved to New York in 2002 and currently resides in Batavia.  She graduated from Brockport with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism. 

Brittany Baker grew up in Genesee County, graduating from Oakfield-Alabama High School in 2004. She started her journalism education at GCC and went on to Buffalo State College then SUNY Brockport where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Communications - Broadcasting, with a minor in English.  Her career goal is to become a TV news anchor at a WNY station. Brittany is covering Oakfield and Alabama for The Batavian.

Gretel Kauffman first approached me and Billie at the Muckdog's home opener about doing an internship with The Batavian this summer. She is interested in a career in journalism. Gretel is a sophomore at Elba Central School. She has published poems in various magazines. She is the daughter of Bill and Lucine Kauffman. Gretel is covering community events in her hometown of Elba.

We're always on the scout for people interested in being correspondents for The Batavian. If you have a particular area of Genesee County you would like to cover, contact Billie Owens:  billie (at) the batavian(oneword) dot com.

Most viewed posts for July

• Driver of Kid Rock crew busted for alleged DWI
• No injuries reported after tornado touches down in Corfu
• Tornado hits Corfu, power lines down, Route 33 closed
• Batavia Trivia - Pizza Shop in East Town Plaza?, by Bea McManis
• Serious injury accident reported at demolition derby at Genesee County Fair
• Recap: Tornado strikes Corfu, damages homes and businesses, but no injuries reported
• Today's Poll: Do you think Sarah Palin is planning on running for president in 2012?
• More than 100 people arrested at Kid Rock concert at Darien Lake
• Corfu tornado videos submitted to YouTube
• Tornado Picture, Corfu.... July 25, 2009, by Susan Kennelly

Here's our most viewed video for the month:

July was big for The Batavian -- we signed our 48th sponsor (the goal was 50 by the end of July, so we didn't quite make it, but maybe we'll do better in August (our goal for August is 60 total by the end of the month)  -- and more people visited The Batavian more often than ever before.

The final traffic numbers surprised me. Our previous audience record was set in June. It was such a big jump over May that I figured that unless some would-be robbers again miscalculated and picked a bank in Genesee County as an easy mark, July traffic would fall short of June.

Now, you may be thinking, "But Howard, there was that tornado last week -- that had to boost traffic," and it did, but as I watched the numbers come in even before that big news story, I realized July's traffic was getting a lot closer to June's traffic than I anticipated.

Thank you to all the new and established readers who make The Batavian your first choice for local news.

The Batavian is the #1 online news source for Genesee County.

Now, that last sentence surely just made a few people over at our cross-town rival a little red faced. They don't believe it's true. That's fine. They don't have a lot of experience in looking at online audience data. I've been doing it for nearly 15 years, so I'm happy to explain why and how I make that claim.

Our friends over at the Daily News have been running ads at Dwyer Stadium that proclaim thedailynewsonline.com is the area's most visited Web site, and "it's not even close." 

Within the past week, the management over at the Daily started running an online ad that implies the same claim and links to a site called Compete.com to demonstrate how much bigger the Daily's online audience is than The Batavian.

Now the most amazing thing about this ad isn't how disingenuous it is (and it's very misleading), it's that it marks the first time that "the paper of record" has made any sort of official acknowledgment that The Batavian even exists.

The problem with leaning on Compete.com is that no online professional believes any longer that its stats are anything close to accurate. It, along with Alexa, are completely discredited. Compete.com is too easy to game. All you need to do to boost your traffic numbers is get your IT guy to install the Compete toolbar on every employee's machine and wham, your traffic numbers jump.

At this point, I have no interest in Compete as a source of audience information, so I wouldn't even have looked at the site yesterday except that the Daily linked to a page comparing its site traffic to The Batavian's.

Compete.com pegs the total number of people who visited The Batavian at 18,000 (and says it declined over the past month). That's just plain, flat-out wrong. Worse yet, the folks at the Daily know it's wrong.

A newer third-party measurement service is Quantcast. It will measure traffic for any site that signs up for the service, and the traffic data of member sites is publicly available. Both The Batavian and the Daily are measured by Quantcast (which is how I know that the Daily folks have some clue Compete's numbers are way off base -- they also watch the Quantcast numbers). Again, Quantcast under reports our traffic (the latest Quantcast number is 25,000 people visiting the site over the past 30 days, which  is an under count by about 11,000 people), but the site does provide the folks at the Daily some indication that Compete.com isn't a trusted source of audience data.

Here at The Batavian, we pay close attention to our audience numbers as measured by Google Analytics, an industry leader and one that many of my peers in the profession trust (FWIW, I've served on the Newspaper Association of America's Audience Development Committee and have acted as an adviser to a major audience research company). According to GA, more than 36,000 people visited The Batavian in July, and nearly 35,000 visited in June.

Now, I'm not sure if the Daily uses GA. I do know they measure their own traffic with an application called MerlinStats. MerlinStats, which the Daily cited in a print ad it ran recently bragging on its online traffic, is a product of Town News, a company owned by the newspaper conglomerate Lee Enterprises, based in Iowa. Town News provides the Daily with its online content-managment system (the software that powers its Web site).  Town News also provides the Daily with something called a SWAT team, which is a service whereby Town News sends high-pressure sales reps into a local market to sell as many ads as possible in a one- or two-week period. The conflict of interest should be obvious: The same company that provides the Daily with the stats that it uses to sell its ads also makes money off those same ad sales. It must show strong traffic numbers in order to justify the expense of the Daily's content-management system.

All that said, I won't dispute that the Daily, overall, gets more people visiting its site than The Batavian. Quantcast tells me as much, and even as it undercounts The Batavian's traffic, it surely undercount's the Daily's traffic by some equal proportion.

So, when the Daily folks say "the area's most visited Web site," in a sense they're not lying.

Of course, the Daily defines "area" as Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties. Here at The Batavian, we only care about Genesee County. Of course, we draw traffic from the other counties, especially Orleans, but we've never promoted the site outside of Genesee County. The Daily has a promotional vehicle known as a print newspaper that drops into the other two counties on an almost daily basis, so of course their overall traffic is going to be larger than The Batavian's (at least for now).

What really matters from our perspective is Genesee County. 

There is no 100-percent reliable method to compare traffic from just Genesee County between The Batavian and the Daily's site, but Quantcast gives us a clue.

Before I give you the numbers, a little perspective: First, we've already discussed, Quantcast is under reporting traffic for both the Daily and The Batavian. Second, Quantcast can only measure geographic traffic based on where an ISP reports a computer is located. I suspect that a lot of what gets reported as Rochester traffic for The Batavian is really Time-Warner customers living in Batavia, because TW has a tendency to identify many of its accounts as Rochester residents.

Any flaws in Quantcast's data are going to be shared, on a statistical basis, by both The Batavian and the Daily equally. In other words, it's an apples-to-apples comparison.

So, when you look at Quantcast's geographic report and total up the numbers for the two sites, Quantcast reports The Batavian had 8,616 Genesee County visitors (meaning individual computers tracked by a GC-based IP address) versus 8,331 for the dailynewsonline.com. (Report compiled Aug. 2, 2009.) (Note also, that both sites most likely draw a significant portion of its local traffic from people living in GC, but working in Rochester and Buffalo, and only checking either site during the day while at work -- we're confident that The Batavian's local traffic is at least in the 15,000 people range per month, and the Daily's GC traffic is within the same range).

What the Quantcase comparison shows is that it's conceivable to concludeThe Batavian clearly has a larger local audience than the Daily's site, but at worst, it's a statistical dead heat, so for the Daily to claim "it's not even close," or to throw up ads on its own site implying it's the #1 as a local online news source is clearly misleading.

We feel quite justified in claiming the Genesee County #1 online crown, especially when you also factor in the greater frequency of return visitors to The Batavian as compared to the Daily (as measured by Quantcast).

And looking at the Quantcast charts below, the day may soon arrive when, based on the trends, The Batavian's numbers not only beat the Daily's Genesee County numbers, but its three-county coverage as well.

You'll note that one site's trends are tilting down while the other is tilting upward.

The bottom graph shows dramatically that when the Daily proclaims at Dwyer, "the area's most visited Web site, and it's not even close," the "newspaper of record" isn't making a credible, honest statement. The statement "it's not even close" has never been true and now, arguably, the "most visited" claim is also false.

One other thing advertisers should consider when comparing The Batavian's online audience with the Daily's: On The Batavian, your ad can potentially be seen by every site visitor. On the Daily, all ad positions are shared by multiple businesses, so advertisers compete against as many as nine other banner ads for display time. That means potentially up to 90 percent of visitors to the Daily's site will have no chance to see your ad. Or to put it another way, if 45,000 people visited the Daily's site in the past month, only 4,500 had an opportunity to see your ad. But on The Batavian, potentially 36,000 people could have seen it. So on a charge-per-person basis, ads on The Batavian cost much, much less (based on what I've seen of the Daily's rate card and have been told they charge).

I hope this doesn't come across as bashing the Daily.  I respect the people who work there, especially the many fine newsroom people I've met. But when management  spreads misinformation about online traffic -- for the good of The Batavian in this highly competitive situation --I think I need to set the record straight. I just can't let the Daily go around promoting misinformation about my business and remain silent.

For full disclosure, below is what GA reports as The Batavian's key statistics for the past three months.

Glossary: Unique visitor is a single person (really a single computer) visiting once or multiple times in the measured period; Visits is all the times all the people came to the site in the measured people (one person might come once and another seven times and together they would account for eight visits); Page views is the number of times a Web page is downloaded into a Web browser. A single person on a single visit might account for two or three or four page views (the Daily averages many more page views than The Batavian because of significant differences in how content is displayed on the site and critical navigation differences).

May:

• Unique visitors: 25,553
• Visitors: 82,485
• Page views: 199,046

June:

• Unique visitors: 34,800
• Visitors: 114,519
• Page views: 277,524

July:

• Unique visitors: 36,207
• Visitors: 121,394
• Page views: 284,615

Of course, you can do much to help our numbers grow -- e-mail stories to friends, tell all your friends and family about the site, put a bumper sticker on your car, spread the word through your church or civic group newsletter, ask me to speak to your local group, etc.

When we make an error, we normally just correct the post, and if it's a factual error, note it in that post appropriately. Normally, because most often the mistake is brought to our attention in fairly short order.

Last week we reported an accident where we included the word "not" where there should have been no "not." Driver Charles Kopp DID tell investigators that he used his turn signal.

Since the post is quite old in Internet years at this point, we wanted to draw readers attention to this factual error.

The Batavian regrets the error.

Whether your group is a Rotary or Lions club, a historical society, a volunteer fire department or just a group of people who like to get together once in a while and talk about interesting things, you might want to know that I have a presentation available that will ensure an informative and interesting afternoon or evening meeting.

My presentation is entitled "Reinventing Journalism." I've given the same talk at the national Society of Professional Journalists convention and the New England New Media Association convention as well as other national and regional groups. I've boiled down the key points so it would be appropriate to a local community group meeting (where the time limit is often 20 minutes, rather than the hour I usually take).

Some people might think The Batavian is nothing more than a wild thought -- let's publish a Web page and make it something like a blog. As if it were that simple.

Actually, a lot more thought and experience went into it than that -- a lot of study of media history and media theory, and "Reinventing Journalism" hits some of the key points. (If you're interested in my qualifications for giving such a talk, check my LinkedIn profile.)

So my talk covers some interesting journalism history and challenges, and concludes with theory on why The Batavian is the kind of news Web site it is.

I've found that anybody with any interest in media at all finds the topic a great discussion item.

The presentation includes multimedia -- I can bring audio speakers, but I don't own an LCD projector, so your group will need to provide the projector and a suitable location.

If you're interested in booking a "Reinventing Journalism" talk and a discussion about The Batavian, call me at 260-6970.

They're commonly called "bicycle-shaped objects" -- the bikes Wal-Mart sells. They're built and designed to be cheap, not reliable. The same could be said for the lawn mowers you can get at Home Depot -- for $120 to $130 you can get a lawn mower, that if you're lucky, will last the summer, and then you can replace it next year.

People think of the Big Box Stores as low-price leaders, but there's an adage we all know: You get what you pay for.

When you shop on price alone, you may just be throwing your money away.

The advantage of the local retailer is that his or her reputation rests on the products in the store, and the service that goes with the sales.  The typical local business owner went into a particular line of work because that's his passion. He or she is an expert in the field. That passion and expertise makes for a better shopping experience.

And sometimes you'll be surprised -- the lowest prices aren't always at the big boxes.

Here at The Batavian we're thankful for the men and women who own so many of Genesee County's great stores and restaurants, because without them, there would be no site in town like The Batavian.  If you appreciate what we're doing, please support the sponsors listed below, and when you do, please let them know that you saw their ad on The Batavian and it influenced your patronage for that day.

• Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle
• Affordable Floor Covering
• Alex's Place
• Barrett's Batavia Marine and Sporting Supplies
• Batavia Cycle Center
• Batavia Downs Casino
• Batavia Muckdogs
• Blue Pearl Yoga
• Carlson's Studio
• Cedar St. Sales and Rentals
• Center Street Smokehouse
• Charles Men's Shop
• D'n'R Fireplaces and Stoves
• Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern
• Diegelman Plumbing
• Eclectic Creations
• The Enchanted Florist
• Essence of Candles
• Fastec Automotive
• Genesee County Red Cross
• Genesee Feeds
• Godfrey's Pond
• Herbly Wonderful
• Holland Land Office Museum
• Jackson St. Grill/Belladessa's
• The Insurance Center
• Larry's Steakhouse
• Lewis and Lewis
• Main St. Pizza Company
• The Mane Attraction
• Max Pies
• O'Lacy's Irish Pub
• Oliver's Candies
• Pellegrino Auto Sales
• Picasso's Pizza
• Present Tense Books
• Roxy's Music Store
• South Main Country Store
• Southside Deli
• Sport of Kings
• T.F. Brown's
• T-Shirts Etc.
• Valle Jewelers

A little late, but here's the Top 10 posts for June:

• Manhunt in progress near Townline and 63
• Elba robbery suspects identified, arraigned and held without bail
• Pavilion superintendent earning $183K
• Lightpost painting in downtown Batavia
• New York Assembly passes 'Farm Death Bill'
• Weeds Be Gone: City looks to toughen ordinance for property clean up
• Walgreens fence is barrier to business growth in Le Roy
• Emory Upton's monument getting a little unexpected sprucing
• Anti-teen drinking campaign in Genesee County June 20 
• Purple boxes spotted in Genesee County trees designed to trap Emerald Ash Borer