San Antonio is growing, and so is the Rivard Report. We set an all-time record for site traffic in August, a surprising accomplishment in a summer month. Five of eight months this year we have reached new levels of readership, a sure sign we continue to expand our journalistic reach and audience in San Antonio.
As we reach the 3.5 year mark this summer, the Rivard Report is planning some significant changes to accomplish four goals:
- Ensure our continued growth and stability as a community media platform.
- Hire more talented journalists and business staff.
- Cover more topics and geography in the metropolitan area.
- Increase the number of stories we publish each day.
We’d like your feedback on what we’re doing now, and how we can improve and grow.
What began as a one-person blog in February 2012 has steadily expanded in reach and mission. We now have five full-time staff and more than two dozen paid freelance contributors. We have published hundreds of community voices, including some of San Antonio’s most prominent citizens, and many talented, creative and dedicated individuals who are not household names. These are the people that really make San Antonio and the individuals we most proudly showcase. We know there are a million good stories out there, and we hope many more of you come forward to tell yours.
In almost every major U.S. city, community-based digital media has become an important part of the cityscape, telling stories that otherwise would not get told as mainstream media continues to shrink in size and reach. It remains a time of experimentation, with different media platforms in different cities trying different business models. Some are for profit, some are nonprofit, and as we sometimes joke here, some are no-profit. Every penny we make from our advertisers, sponsors and our public events at the Rivard Report goes back into the business, which we operate with the mindset of a startup. Working in our offices on the sixth floor of Geekdom in the downtown Rand Building makes that easier. We are surrounded by people with the entrepreneurial and startup spirit.
We are far from perfect. We are small in size, ambitious in reach, underpaid and overworked. We make mistakes, we miss stories, and we don’t always get things exactly right. All of us, however, are driven by our commitment to San Antonio and building a better community, and we know that is resonating with more readers with each passing month. Strong communities are built by engaged citizens who feel connected and who are well-informed by trusted local media.
We’ve had a remarkable response to our two past surveys. There are a lot of good people out there supporting us and our work, and their feedback has been important to our growth and development. Please take a few minutes out of your day and fill out the survey. Thanks for your readership and your support.
Click here to access our 2015 survey.
As always, your answers, email addresses, etc. are confidential. We do not sell or share such information and we do not spam our readers, publish click bait disguised as news, pop-up ads, or otherwise intentionally annoy you. We do collate demographic data for our own use, and for our sponsors and advertisers, and we do try to measure levels of civic engagement, such as participation in elections and reader positions on important public policy issues. We’re excited to get to know you better and learn how we can continue to be your best online source of local news and information in San Antonio.
-The Rivard Report Team
*Featured/top image: Technology buffs came together at Southerleigh. Photo by Scott Ball.
Related Stories:
Watch and Listen to Your Future Mayor at Pints & Politics II
Thanks, San Antonio: Rivard Report Turns Two
The Rivard Report: Happy First Birthday to Us
