We ran a Flip Ad contest these past two days.
The secret code hidden under a Flip Ad was "Vincent Maney."
The winner is Douglas Gaus, of Batavia, who was the ninth person to correctly e-mail the answer to us.
Douglas wins $25.
COVERAGE NOTE: Billie and I are leaving this afternoon for Saratoga Springs and the annual spring convention of the New York Press Association.
This is The Batavian's first year as members of the NYPA and our first convention with the organization.
We're looking forward to it.
Of course, we won't be any further away than a wi-fi connection and will continue to keep the site updated with news.
We have coverage assigned to various people over the next few days.
Our Wyoming County Editor Julia Ferrini, with an assist from Steve Ognibene, will monitor the scanner for us and cover breaking news as needed. We'll also get help from our news partners WBTA and 13WHAM.
We ran a Flip Ad contest yesterday, but I haven't had time until now to count up the entries and find the 18th correct answer to our secret code.
The code this time was "Roy Mason" (a local artist of some reknown).
The winner was Jeffrey Gillard, of Batavia.
We'll send Jeff a check for $25.
Look for another random Flip Ad contest at some time next week.
Remember to patronize the businesses that sponsor The Batavian.
Six years ago, there were critics who gave us six months.
I heard it in Batavia and read it from pundits online.
When Billie and I assumed ownership of The Batavian, the site had three sponsors and hadn't yet cracked 2,400 visitors in a day. There were naysayers who thought we were foolish to sell our home in Pittsford and rent a tiny duplex on Maple Street and pretend we could be local online news publishers in Batavia.
That was March 1, 2009.
Today, thanks to the support of our readers, we have more than 140 sponsors and employ three people (including our editor for the Wyoming County Free Press).
Last week, we had 12,000 visitors to The Batavian every day. That's normal now, and on big news days we're well over 15,000 visitors and sometimes as high as 20,000.
In a county with a population of only 57,000 people, we get 120,000 visitors to the site per month, who visit the site 550,000 times per month. (Source for these numbers is our Google Analytics account, which tells us nearly 60 percent of that traffic comes from within Genesee County, with the bulk of the rest coming from the rest of Western New York (likely local residents checking us out while at work.)
Those might seem like staggering numbers, or perhaps not. There are sites online where those traffic numbers would be considered abysmal, so some context is needed.
We get context by comparing our traffic with the local news organization we consider our competitor, the Batavia Daily News.
The chart above comes from a site called Quantcast, which measures the traffic of both TheBatavian.com and TheDailyNewsOnline.com.
The top line is The Batavian, which covers only one county, and the bottom line is the Batavia Daily News, which counts as its market area three counties (Genesee, Wyoming and Orleans).
Billie and I are really proud of how people in Genesee County have embraced The Batavian as the go-to local news source. The spikes in the chart above especially illustrated how important we are to local readers when there is breaking news.
Quantcast says in the past 30 days, The Batavian has had 127,000 unique visitors (kind of like counting individual computers that visit the site) compared to 99,000 for the Batavia Daily News. We've had 663,081 visits (counts people visiting multiple times) compared to 422,000 for the Batavia Daily News.
Marketers use a term called Defined Market Area to measure audience for media companies, and Genesee County is divided between Buffalo and Rochester. Our traffic in the Buffalo DMA was 64,566 people and for Rochester, 23,785. For the Batavia Daily News, the numbers are 37,694 and 18,702.
While it's gratifying to compare ourselves to our competition and see we're on top, that's not the real point here. As I go around town, I get asked all the time, "How's The Batavian doing?" This is how we're doing.
More than our raw traffic numbers, those comparisons speak volumes about how The Batavian has been accepted and embraced by Genesee County residents.
It also puts our success in context on a larger stage. There are, at best, only a handful of online-only news sites in the United States that have achieved our level of success in readership and local business support. I don't even know of a newspaper in a comparable market that matches The Batavian's online success with its Web site.
Publications that cover media are full of pundits who pontificate on the failure of local news media and are self-assured that the Internet destroys the audience for local news. The numbers for The Batavian demonstrate, I think, how wrong those proclamations are. People do want local news, and if they get it in a style and format they like, they will flock to it.
Billie and I are grateful for your support. We're transplants from Southern California who have come to love Western New York and enjoy our life in Batavia. We're excited about our community's future and prospects for growth and intend to do all we can to be a supporter of an ever more vibrant and successful community.
Of course, we wouldn't be in business without the support of our sponsors, but there again, we need to thank our readers. You all have been most generous in supporting our sponsors. We continually get rave reviews from sponsors who are pleased with the results they get from their ads on The Batavian. Please continue to support the local and regional businesses who so graciously support The Batavian.
On the sponsorship front, we've promoted Lucie Ann Griffis to an expanded sales territory to include Genesee County, so if you have a local business and are ready to experience a great way to market your business, call Lucie at our office, (585) 250-4118.
We held a Flip Ad contest today. The winner is Anne Marie Starowitz, of Batavia.
Anne Marie was the eighth person to correctly identify today's secret code, which was Henry Homelius.
The prize is $25.
We have a few advertisers running Flip Ads. Telling us which ads are Flip Ads won't win you the contest (I get about one e-mail a day along those lines). To win, you must find the code hidden under an ad, which we post once a week at random times. (We forgot last week.)
The secret code today was Edna Gruber, and Jessica Gielow, of Alden, was the 14th person with the correct code who sent in an e-mail.
We'll send $25 to Jessica.
The code was flipped under the Insurance Center ad.
We'll play again next week.
Remember to watch the ads and check out the flip ads for special promotions (which is not the same as the ad used in a contest).
Click here for the iOS version.
Click here for the Android version.
Reacht is a fun, interactive way for people to share their opinions on a variety of topics, from politics to baseball, world events to music, hot-button controversies to the amusing topics of society. Participants will also receive unique and special offers from local merchants -- and some national merchants -- tailored to their interests.
We promise you won't get bombarded with a string of daily notifications, but the app uses your smartphone's notification service to ask you poll questions and send you offers.
We will use this app in conjunction with our current daily poll, but we'll also fashion special, mobile-only polls.
There will also be prizes you can win for participating.
The app is free.
Our kick-off next week is being sponsored by Southside Deli. Those who download the app and respond to the second poll question of the day on the app will be eligible to win a $5 gift certificate (we'll give away at least 80 of them over the first two weeks) to Southside Deli.
We're working on obtaining other prizes. (Local businesses, want to participate? Contact me or Lisa Ace at (585) 250-4118.)
Our latest Flip Ad contest winner is Bud Prevost.
Bud was the 5th person to send in the correct secret code, which this time was William Morgan.
Bud wins $25.
NOTE: The contest ad is still up and will likely be up throughout the day, but we do have a winner.
Kate Sick of Corfu is today's Flip Ad contest winner. Kate was the fifth person to e-mail us today with today's secret phrase, "Trumbull Cary," which was flipped under the Settler's ad.
We'll send Kate $25.
Watch next week for another Flip Ad contest.
We ran a Flip Ad contest Tuesday (the secret code didn't actually come down until this morning, but we got our winner last night) and the winner is Jody Robbins, of Stafford.
She was the eighth person to correctly identify "Paolo Busti" as the secret code phrase.
Robbins wins $25.
Watch for another Flip Ad contest next week.
Business owners: Flip Ads are a great, interactive way to draw more attention to your message. Contact Lisa Ace at (585) 250-4118 for more information. And ask about all the new interactive ad styles we now have available.
Here are the 25 most viewed stories on The Batavian of 2014:
It was another banner year in traffic to the site.
There were 6,153,368 visits to the site, up from 5,909,231 in 2013. We recorded 1,149,120 unique visitors to the site, up from 1,082,729 in 2013. And, there were 9,806,264 page views in 2014, compared to 9,794,627 the previous year.
The Batavian was once again the #1 online news source for Genesee County.
Here are some of the more than 6,000 photos The Batavian published in 2014 documenting our year in Genesee County.
Running from yesterday, into today, we had a Flip Ad contest running.
The winner is Elizabeth Geuss, of Batavia. She flipped the correct hidden code: John Gardner and was the 15th person to respond.
Watch for another Flip Ad contest some time next week.
Here's a link to all of the photo galleries we published in 2014. Order a print from this collection of photos before Jan. 4 and get 10-percent off on your order. Use the coupon code: 2014sale.
We ran a Flip Ad contest on Thursday, but unfortunately, I got really busy over the next couple of days, so sorry for not announcing the winner sooner.
The winner is Elizabeth Downie, of Batavia. Downie correctly identified the Flip Ad code phrase of "Centennial Park."
We'll run another contest this week.
We're a little behind in putting together our 2015 calendar of Genesee County photos. We'll take orders up until Monday morning. It will be difficult, but we'll try our best to get them in the mail by Jan. 1.
The price this year is $15.95, plus tax, plus $4 for shipping and handling.
To order individual prints of the photos contained in the calendar, click here.
Purchase via PayPal using the button below, or mail your check (must be received by Monday's mail) to The Batavian, 200 E. Main St. #5, Batavia, NY 14020.
To order by credit card, call our office either today or tomorrow only, 585-250-4118.
Order Calendar via PayPal:
It's still important to us that you join The Batavian Club. As I've said before, every membership is important to us. We appreciate the support. It goes a long way toward helping us meet all the expenses associated with The Batavian (expenses that are growing all the time).
This isn't just about us, however. It's also about you. You receive valuable savings at local businesses for an amount far exceeding the cost of the membership, and if you enjoy getting your local news from The Batavian, you are helping to sustain that effort.
So many people every day tell me how much they love The Batavian. All we're asking is for those loyal fans to make a small financial contribution to help support and sustain our news coverage and in exchange we'll send you gift certificates worth a lot more than the membership price.
NOTE: If you've joined in the past two months (a handful of people have, even without prompting by a post like this), we will send out your membership get with the batch generated by our effort over the next three weeks to invite more people to join. Sorry for the delay, be putting together the kits is a time-intensive process, so we do them in batches).
TO JOIN: Use PayPal buttons below, or to pay by check (annual only) or credit card, click here to download form. Or call (585) 250-4118 to pay by credit card.
Annual Single Membership - $50 per year (a recurring annual payment)
Includes membership card, bumper sticker, one package of gift certificates to local businesses.
Annual membership, one-time payment of $60
Includes membership card, bumper sticker, one package of gift certificates to local businesses.
The winner was Dave Olsen, of Basom.
Dave was the 12th person to find the secret code, flipped under the Alli's Cones & Dogs ad, which was "Dean Richmond."
We'll play again on one day next week.
Reminder: To win you must correctly identify the secret code word. I received a half dozen e-mails this morning before we even put the contest up. Each e-mail was idenifying an existing Flip Ads. That's not how the contest is played.
When playing, remember to include your full name and address to qualify for the prize.
There won't be another code up until some time tomorrow.
Katie will be sent a check for $25.
We'll run another contest tomorrow.
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