As a guest of the New York Farm Bureau, I will be in Waterloo for the next two days to attend the Farm and Food Experience, a symposium for journalists on the agriculture industry. I was thrilled to be invited to attend. It's a great opportunity to learn more about farming.
Naturally, news coverage will be more limited while I'm away, but will continue.
I'm long overdue for taking care of this -- we promised to give away an iPad Mini to one lucky poster during the first month of our newest Web site, Batavia's List.
The winner is Mike McDonald. Mike increased his odds during the month-long contest by posting three home rental ads.
Since he already owns a tablet, he's donating his prize to John Kennedy School so it might go to a student who can't afford such a device.
We have a new contest: Post something to the marketplace on Batavia's List between now and Nov. 10 and win a $100 gift certificate to Larry's Steakhouse. No purchase necessary. To post for free e-mail howard@thebatavian.com for a coupon code for a free post.
We're also now running our community calendar through Batavia's List. Post your events on our calendar and they appear on both sites. You must register for Batavia's List to post calendar items. Once you do, and you're logged in, you will see a button for posting events on the Calendar Page.
If you're on Facebook, you can get updates of postings to Batavia's List by liking Batavia's List on Facebook.
Finally, please be sure to sign up for our new daily e-mail newsletter.
We're ending this little experiment we called The Batavian Club. It's a lot of work that we're always behind on for too little return. That's the bad news.
The good news is, we're still going to offer the same fantastic deals with local businesses in special gift certificate packages.
Essentially, it's The Batavian Club without calling it a club. The big difference on our end is we save the work on tracking members and printing membership cards, which always seemed to bog us down and create a lot of unnecessary expense. We will be able to send out money-saving gift certificates much sooner after an order is placed when we don't have to make batches of individual membership cards.
For local businesses, it's the same great promotion as before. There's no additional expense beyond honoring the gift cards when customers come in. If your business is not already participating, call me at (585) 250-4118.
For those who had recurring payments set up in PayPal, I just canceled all of those so there will be no future payments from your account. There are three people who have joined since we last sent out membership packages. They will get a refund. For all other members, they should be up-to-date with membership cards and gift certificates and the stated expiration dates still apply.
Visit Batavia's List and post your ad today!
Also: Sign up for our new daily e-mail newsletter. Get the day's headlines plus the latest marketplace posts delivered to your inbox every day at 5 p.m.
Visit Batavia's List and post your ad today!
Also: Sign up for our new daily e-mail newsletter. Get the day's headlines plus the latest marketplace posts delivered to your inbox every day at 5 p.m.
Visit Batavia's List and post your ad today!
Also: Sign up for our new daily e-mail newsletter. Get the day's headlines plus the latest marketplace posts delivered to your inbox every day at 5 p.m.
Visit Batavia's List and post your ad today!
Also: Sign up for our new daily e-mail newsletter. Get the day's headlines plus the latest marketplace posts delivered to your inbox every day at 5 p.m.
Visit Batavia's List and post your ad today!
Also: Sign up for our new daily e-mail newsletter. Get the day's headlines plus the latest marketplace posts delivered to your inbox every day at 5 p.m.
Visit Batavia's List and post your ad today!
Also: Sign up for our new daily e-mail newsletter. Get the day's headlines plus the latest marketplace posts delivered to your inbox every day at 5 p.m.
Finally, we have an e-mail newsletter we can send you.
We will deliver the newsletter every day at 5 p.m. It will contain the top stories of the previous 24 hours or so, plus the latest marketplace posts from Batavia's List.
To sign up, click here.
Don't forget: Post your ad on Batavia's List for a chance to win an iPad Mini. No purchase necessary; e-mail howard@thebatavian.com for a coupon code for a free post.
If you're running a garage or yard sale this weekend, post it on Batavia's List for free.
It will appear on our map page.
We're off to a good start with Batavia's list, with hundreds of people visiting every day the first three days since the site's launch. We're approaching 400 likes on Facebook for the site. Thanks for the early support.
This morning we make a big change in how we handle classified ads and our local business directory. We've moved away from the sites handled by third party vendors and have gone 100-percent homegrown with a new site, Batavia's List.
Batavia's List replaces Shop Batavia, our real estate site and our jobs site.
Our goal was to create a very basic site that acts as a one-stop hub for all kinds of online commerce, from looking up a local business to putting items up for sale, and real estate listings, and job postings, and cars for sale and businesses with promotions and coupons -- all in one place, in one main feed that is easy to scroll through.
We'll also distribute the posts on Facebook (click here to LIKE Batavia's List on Facebook).
The new site also has an easy to use and free way for you to post your garage sales on a map and we've added a calendar of events (more on that to come in a future post). We'll add features as the site grows.
If you're ready to post something, e-mail me at howard@thebatavian.com and I'll send you a coupon code for a free, introductory ad placement.
Local business owners should make sure their business is listed and the listing is up to date.
Members of The Batavian Club can post for free, and as an introductory offer, we've reduced the price of a Club membership by more than half, to $24.95. The membership includes unlimited free classifieds postings as well as $300 in gift certificates to local businesses, plus we're still offering free T-shirts to new members.
Say it loud: Batavia Proud.
Order your shirt today and wear it to Summer in the City on Aug. 15 for a chance to win prizes.
Shirts are $9.95 each, plus tax and shipping and handling.
Or join The Batavian Club by July 20 and get a free T-shirt plus more than $300 in gift certificates to local businesses. Obviously, a great way to support your community.
Use the PayPal buttons below, or click here for an order form (pdf).
Join The Batavian Club and receive a T-shirt for FREE:
Order T-shirts:
Sizes SmallMediumLargeXLXXLXXXL
Buying just one shirt: This button might be easier to use:
Size SmallMediumLargeXLXXLXXXLMembers of The Batavian Club receive more than $300 in gift certificates. These are gift certificates that be used in the same local businesses we all patronize every day.
An annual membership is a mere $60. So think about it, use your first $60 in gift certificates and the rest of your membership package is like getting free money. Who doesn't like free stuff?
Sign up with an annual recurring payment instead of a one-time payment, and save another $10 off your membership fee. More free stuff!
You're helping to support The Batavian's mission to bring you the best local coverage and supporting local businesses at the same time. Everybody wins.
Here's what you get:
There are three ways to join: Use Paypal (buttons below) call us with your credit card information, or mail us a check.
Call us at (585) 250-4118 during regular business hours.
Single member non-recurring payment: $60 Single membership annual recurring automatic payment of $50Billie and I will catch a plane for San Diego in a couple of hours. We're going to visit family.
We've made arrangements to ensure there is ongoing local coverage on The Batavian while we're away. Traci Turner, our intern, will be on the job, of course, and we're working with several of our freelancers on event coverage and other stories as well as ensure we have systems in place to handle breaking news.
We return in a week. We'll try to bring some extra sunshine back.
The baseball season is just days away. Yup, the Batavia Muckdogs are returning to Dwyer Stadium for all the fun and community and professional baseball that we all enjoy.
Join The Batavian Club and receive a voucher for two free tickets to a regular season game.
Members of The Batavian Club receive more than $300 in gift certificates. These are gift certificates that be used in the same local businesses we all patronize every day.
The Batavian Club is a great value for all of its members. An annual membership is a mere $60. So think about it, use your first $60 in gift certificates and the rest of your membership package is like getting free money. Who doesn't like free stuff?
Sign up with an annual recurring payment instead of a one-time payment, and save another $10 off your membership fee. More free stuff!
You're helping to support The Batavian's mission to bring you the best local coverage and supporting local businesses at the same time. Everybody wins.
Here's what you get:
There are three ways to join: Use Paypal (buttons below) call us with your credit card information, or mail us a check.
Call us at (585) 250-4118 during regular business hours.
Single member non-recurring payment: $60 Single membership annual recurring automatic payment of $50Members of The Batavian Club receive more than $300 in gift certificates. These are gift certificates that be used in the same local businesses we all patronize every day.
An annual membership is a mere $60. So think about it, use your first $60 in gift certificates and the rest of your membership package is like getting free money. Who doesn't like free stuff?
Sign up with an annual recurring payment instead of a one-time payment, and save another $10 off your membership fee. More free stuff!
You're helping to support The Batavian's mission to bring you the best local coverage and supporting local businesses at the same time. Everybody wins.
Here's what you get:
There are three ways to join: Use Paypal (buttons below), call us with your credit card information, or mail us a check.
Call us at (585) 250-4118 during regular business hours.
Single member non-recurring payment: $60 Single membership annual recurring automatic payment of $50
Traci Turner will spend the next eight weeks interning for The Batavian. Her internship is possible through the generosity of the New York Press Association.
She will work full time covering news through the end of July.
Born and raised in Bergen, Turner is a 2013 graduate of Byron-Bergen High School and is a third-year journalism major (minor in advertising and public relations) at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Previously, she's been an intern for WBTA AM/FM and currently holds a studio producer position at the radio station.
"I'm happy to be interning at The Batavian and I’m looking forward to serving its readers," Turner said. "I couldn’t imagine pursuing any other career but journalism."
When we recently upgraded the software for The Batavian, the ability for users to edit comments disappeared.
That was one of a few bugs that crept up with the upgrade that we've been working through.
We've always had the ability for users to edit their own comments. An option rarely available on news Web sites. I know it's a popular feature, but it's also a feature that has been abused by a few people looking to not just correct spelling and grammar, but alter the history of what they've written. For that reason, I've sometimes wanted to limit the ability of people to edit comments particularly the here-and-there, occasional commenter, which are the ones most likely to remove a comment or substantially alter its meaning.
Also, all this software support is expensive. The Batavian needs the support of readers, and not just advertisers, to really thrive.
When it came time to get comment editing back again, I decided we're going to have a change in policy: Comment editing will only be available to those who have paid to join The Batavian Club.
The Batavian Club helps us pay the bills. We need your support. In exchange, membership more than pays for itself with the $300 in gift certificates to local businesses you receive. If you love The Batavian and love saving money, there's really no reason not to join.
So, join today!
(BTW: If you're a member and can't edit comments, send me an e-mail, howard@thebatavian.com. I may not have properly tagged your user account.)
UPDATE: We also just launched a new search function on the site. It's faster and offers some additional features to help return better results. I forgot to mention earlier as well, we also upgraded the thumbs up/thumbs down in response to reader request. Instead of an aggregate result of positive or negative votes, you see the total of how many ups and how many downs each comment gets.
Use this button to set up a recurring annual payment of $50 (a discount for subscribing on an annual basis):
Use this button to make a single-year payment of $60:
The people who have joined The Batavian Club over the past two years have helped The Batavian tremendously. The membership dues have helped pay dues and helped us make more use of freelancers.
We even ended up hiring a contract worker to send out the most recent batch of membership kits (long, long overdue, which had a lot to do with my decision to just say, "I should hire somebody to do this work.").
Join now and help us do more. We have a good group of people willing to help The Batavian and I'd like to throw more work their way. Join The Batavian Club and help employ local people.
You love The Batavian, so help us get better.
Use this button to set up a recurring annual payment of $50 (a discount for subscribing on an annual basis):
Use this button to make a single-year payment of $60:
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