Wow! Two years already? Happy anniversary, Newton County.
Not sure what I’m talking about? Well, two years ago on Oct. 24, I walked through the doors of The Covington News as the newspaper’s news editor and since then not only has a lot changed with the newspaper, but a lot has changed in Newton County as well. I couldn’t be happier to have the opportunity to witness it all and now in the role of editor and publisher of this newspaper.
When I started with The News, we were owned by a non-local newspaper megacompany, our printing was subpar and our online presence was minimal. Since then, things have changed and taken a turn for the better and I am excited to continue on that success.
I love to look at numbers as a measurement for success. Numbers are not forgiving most of the time and they’re hard to fudge. Let’s walk through some of the numbers for this newspaper over the last two years.
The month before I started with this newspaper, covnews.com totaled right around 188,000 pageviews on its website. Two years later, this newspaper’s website more than doubled that with more than 374,000 pageviews in the month.
On Oct. 21, 2016, The Covington News’ Facebook page totaled 13,601 page likes. As of today, we sit with more than 20,000 likes on the same page.
The sale of our print product has grown with the introduction of a better-quality print job. We have introduced a handful of new magazine products, along with special sections nearly every month to help build our product into something the community can be proud of.
I say all of this to say, it has been my pleasure to serve Newton County and the readers of The Covington News. I have truly enjoyed watching the growth of this community and seeing the newspaper thrive around it. The community gets the newspaper it supports and we thank you for your continued support.
Here’s to many more years, Newton County.
Jackie Gutknecht is the editor and publisher of The Covington News. She can be reached at jgutknecht@covnews.com or 770-728-1409. Twitter: @jackieg1991
