WE WON!!!!!!! 17 JOURNALISM AWARDS, + BEST WEBSITE IN OUR REGION! (NOT BAD FOR NEWBIES)

[Liberty Belle]

October 20, 2009 (San Diego’s East County) – East County Magazine took home 17 awards at tonight’s San Diego Press Club dinner, including some of the top honors in the region.


Our publication was named best general interest website in San Diego County and second best news site (after the San Diego Union-Tribune). Five of our writers (E.A. Barrera, Gayle Early, Miriam Raftery, Jamie Reno, and Joseph Rocha) also won individual honors, beating out many of the top writers and publications in the region. Not bad for an upstart nonprofit media site that’s barely one year old!

Full story: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/2101

Not bad, considering we're an upstart, nonprofit publication - and we went up against some of the biggest publishers in our region! We started this on a shoestring - a $4,000 grant - a fraction of what's spent by the major media we beat out. Plus we're getting a million hits a month to our site. We ARE the media now! (If we can do this here, so can you.) To quote Howard Dean, "Yeeeeeaaaaaaah!"

Click, post comments on our site, and raise a cyber-toast. Woooohooo!!!!!!!!!!
:toast: :bounce: :bounce: :toast: :bounce: :bounce: :toast: :bounce: :bounce: :toast:

[ThePantaloon.com]

1. Congrats

We have a small blog/magazine and know how hard it is to generate content and traffic. Kudos.

[Liberty Belle]

28. We found a good way to get readers and traffic -

We offer free wildfire alerts via e-mail in an area where half a million people evacuated two years ago during the worst fires in CA history.

We also offer daily breaking news to the best of our ability, and find many people are just so glad for local news that they don't care too much if some of the stories aren't slanted conservative (as most other publications here have been)

[Kind of Blue]

2. Nothing like good news. Congratulations, Liberty Belle!

KnR!

[Norrin Radd]

3. Congratulations!

[madrchsod]

4. congrats!

the meek shall inherit the ...news awards? !:applause:

[Blue_Tires]

5. congrats!

[spiritual_gunfighter]

6. That is great

Congrats.

[blm]

7. Cyber-toast now...will lift a REAL toast tonight. ;))))

Gratefully.

[NoSheep]

8. This is so encouraging to hear! "We ARE the media now". "Yeeeeaaaah"!

:toast:

[Synnical]

9. That's awesome. Congrats.

K&R.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. Excellent job!

Many hearty congratulations!

[frylock]

11. congrats from a fellow east county resident!

:toast:

[Liberty Belle]

29. Frylock - Have I met you?

We need a lot more writers, interns and volunteers. Let me know if you have any talents to share!

[sonias]

12. Congratulations!

:toast:


Sonia

[omega minimo]

13. Congratulations and Thank You!

:toast:

[lovuian]

14. woohoo

:woohoo:

[depakid]

15. Major props

:fistbump:

[closeupready]

16. That's terrific! Good for you.

:) Congratulations! :hi:

[cascadiance]

17. Congrats! Sounds like they still reward "news gathering" as opposed to other crap!

And hopefully you will continue to profit with your non-profit venture... Damn good job! Will likely be in San Diego Friday after Thanksgiving. Maybe could hook up for our long belated cup of joe together to talk about old times if family obligations allow for it. Hopefully the Portland weather here is kind enough to let me out during this holiday season! Might have to fly down as much as four times to the L.A. area then for various reasons...

[Liberty Belle]

31. That would be great. E-mail me when you know the itinerary.

[e-mail]

[MikeH]

32. I might like to join you

I think I would like to join you if you are going to be in San Diego again.

I miss you at the Black Mountain Democratic Club meetings.

[BrklynLiberal]

18. Congrats!!!

:fistbump: :yourock:

[Divine Discontent]

19. c ongrat s

wonderful to hear, and I'm glad you are combatting, in your own way, Faux News, by givin' the real news online!

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. You beat the Union Trib and NPR?

GOOD FOR YOU....

Especially on the cage lin... er Union Tribune.

[Liberty Belle]

33. Yes. we beat the UT etc in some many categories.

Of course I don't know which publications actually entered which categories. But in some, we took 1st or 2nd, ahead of the biggest pubs in town - the UT, Voice of SD, SDNN, etc.

TV and radio have their own categories separate from print.

[myrna minx]

21. Congratulations!

:toast:

[malaise]

22. Congrats

:toast:

[sandnsea]

23. Congrats - no easy task n/t

[toymachines]

24. Steven from SDNN here

I had no idea you guys frequented the DU! You guys did great last night. Won as many awards as us, with quite a fraction of our budget. I'll be keeping an eye on your site and an eye on you here at DU. San Diego media is movin' on up!

[Liberty Belle]

35. Steve - Great to see you here! SDNN is a terrific site, too.

I hear so many people now tell us that they're not reading the UT anymore--and they're getting all of their news online through sites like ECM or SDNN.

Our site is nonprofit and nonpartisan, but in East County, where the other media has mostly been conservative, just showing all sides on an issue and exposing people to some progressive views makes us different - along with being online and covering a broader territory than the one-horse-town papers we've had here up 'til now.

I really like SDNN's coverage. These sites are really becoming the major media around here -- with the UT more or less a dinosaur.

[arthritisR_US]

25. Way to go, congrats! :-) n/t

[Omaha Steve]

26. WOW

Way to go.

K&R!

[sunnystarr]

27. Totally AWESOME !!!

You must be soooo proud! I remember when you started it and have enjoyed reading the publications even tho I'm not in CA! WTGGGGGGGGGG :D:D:D

[BobTheSubgenius]

30. A big toast of congratulations to all of you!

:toast:

[SeattleGirl]

34. Congratulations!

:toast: :bounce: :toast:

[countmyvote4real]

36. Cheers! n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. congrats

[Vidar]

38. Congratulations.

[voc]

39. Congrats!