As impressive as the numbers are, they continue to grow and the success of StaceyPageOnline.com shows no signs of slowing. That’s great news for the people of Kosciusko County who want today’s news today and breaking news as it’s happening. It’s even better news for our advertising supporters!

Since Kosciusko County’s only all digital daily and up-to-the-minute news site launched a year ago, it has seen more than 16 million page views and more than 623,000 unique visitors! In the last week alone, the website collected 37,695 unique visitors and well over a half-million page views.

The merger between two well-known media outlets erupted on April 30, 2012, into a hyperlocal Web sensation bringing Kosciusko County residents their only truly local source for up-to-the-minute news and sports coverage and hard-hitting journalism that goes beyond the surface.

In 2009, myself, who had been reporting local news in the county since 1988 via newspaper and radio, started the first and only hyperlocal news site in our area. Last year, I teamed with The Papers Inc. in Milford and have continued on the fast track by setting a new precedence for news coverage in Kosciusko County.

Supported by advertisers, StaceyPageOnline.com features all free news, sports, obituaries, business news, school and community news and even a calendar of events.

In the past year, StaceyPageOnline.com has also garnered more than 434,500 organic searches. Organic searches are listings on search engine pages that appear because of their relevance to the search terms. In other words, when searching (on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) for something specific, our news is showing up.

In the past 12 months, StaceyPageOnline.com has not only tallied some impressive numbers, it has also earned national and international recognition. Not only have media outlets from across the country credited our news on websites and newscasts, in October, after just six months of production, Editor & Publisher magazine honored StaceyPageOnline.com as one of five finalists for an EPPY™ Award.

Editor & Publisher magazine is the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the newspaper industry. Each year, the EPPY™ Awards honor the best media-affiliated websites across 31 diverse categories. In October, the Editor & Publisher team, along with a prestigious panel of 68 judges, voted and selected StaceyPageOnline.com as a finalist in the Best News Website division of those websites with less than 1 million unique visitors per month.

Ron Baumgartner, publisher of The Papers Inc. and StaceyPageOnline.com, said about the EPPY™ Award recognition, “It’s really quite an honor to be recognized here in northern Indiana for a website we’ve only had for a few short months and, looking at the other finalists, we are honored to be noted among such good company.”

Also in our first year, StaceyPageOnline.com teamed with Tiger Sports Nation to provide all of Warsaw Community High School’s sports coverage. Our sports editor, Scott Davidson, earned the attention of the Tiger Sports Nation staff, who not only realized the quality coverage of local sports teams, but also the success of StaceyPageOnline.com as a whole and the partnership was formed.

Former television sports reporter turned author and motivational speaker, Charlie Adams, is also rejoining StaceyPageOnline.com with a monthly column. Adams was initially involved with the website, but due to other commitments was unable to continue with his writings at the time. On Monday, Adams will again appear monthly on StaceyPageOnline.com with his columns.

StaceyPageOnline.com has also teamed with Don Roulo, a life, career and business coach locally based who travels nationally and internationally to conduct business and career training. As a business consultant, Roulo has written business plans and worked to market products or services as well as organizing financial statements for investors. His column, “Passion, Purpose & Profit,” appears every Monday on our Business page.

Finally, Todd Hepler has joined StaceyPageOnline.com as a guest writer providing movie (and soon) theatre reviews. Hepler is a local movie enthusiast and provides his reviews each Thursday on our Entertainment page.

As we continue to look for ways to grow and keep providing Kosciusko County with the quality and quantity of news they have come to expect, StaceyPageOnline.com has also created never before available advertising options locally. With current numbers, StaceyPageOnline.com is on track to surpass 21 million pageviews over the next year; meaning our advertisements are being seen millions of times.

Other analytics of interest: Readers are visiting 6.02 pages with each visit and staying an average of 3 minutes on the site. Our Google bounce rate is just .64 percent, meaning those who click on StaceyPageOnline.com, stay on the site.

To inquire about advertising, contact Cindy Hathaway at [email protected] or Toni Ryan at [email protected].