WeHo News is seven years old today

The GOP vice-presidential nominee, Paul Ryan, told so many fibs his fibula coverings ought to have caught fire.

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WeHo News is seven years old today

09/06/2012

by Ryan Gierach, founding editor in chief, WeHo News, West Hollywood, California

Today, Thursday, September 6, WeHo News began its 8th year of publication.

What began as a blogspot.com page in the aftermath of the abrupt closing of a hard copy start-up named the West Hollywood Tribune became the first locally-focused, online-only newspaper startup in the state (and perhaps the nation) on September 5, 2005.

And the most widely read publication WeHo has yet known.

What began with an exclusive story about the raid on the city's Yellow House pot club grew into the news source of choice for thousands of Wehoans - and people around the world.

When we first started, the only readers were those 200-odd in my own E mail address book, a list comprised almost entirely of civic leaders and opinion makers gathered during a career as a freelance journalist for the regional and national gay press and as a historian.

From those lowly beginnings, and through “word of mouse” alone, WeHo News grew to become essential reading for people who care about West Hollywood.

Today 80,500 readers per month use WeHo News for news, information, reviews and opinions.

They read an average of 600,000 pages per month.

Numbers aside, much larger publications regularly recognize WeHo News’ impact, with AOL/Huffington Post LA linking to ours as the only West Hollywood online newspaper and the LA Weekly calling us a “scrappy little online newspaper” while featuring us in an article about the changing political winds in WeHo.

It's our birthday, it's our birthday!

The LA Times regularly uses WeHo News as a local resource, with City Editor Shelby Grad telling us in an E mail, “I love your site.”

The Atlantic, USA Today and a score of other respected journals have also linked to our stories over the years.

Indeed, people around the world who often cannot access gay advocacy publications because of censorship or a reliance on work computers with “gay” blocks, rely on our local mainstream online publication to get gay-related news.

One-in-six of our readers come from outside the United States, a majority of which come for either gay- or entertainment-related news.

That phenomenon makes us something more than a local publication, as testified to by our commercial relationship with the West Hollywood Marketing and Visitors Bureau, the city-sponsored agency dedicated to attracting visitors to the city’s hotels, nightclubs, restaurants and shopping.

The world’s fascination with West Hollywood aside, few will openly quibble with the impact WeHo News has had on the shaping of our current civic reality.

By bringing hard-edged independent journalism to and providing voice to previously-voiceless community activists in their city, WeHo News has changed it for the better, say civic leaders.

Said Mayor Pro Tem Jeffrey Prang, “[WeHo News] has become the definitive source of news for West Hollywood; it seems like it’s been around a lot longer [than seven years]. It’s widely read and respected.”

One-in-six of our readers come from outside the US, making WeHo News far more than a local publication.

Respected enough so that, “WeHo News is the first place major political players, stakeholders and community leaders are paying attention every Monday and Thursday to see what’s being said and who is saying it,” said Mr. Prang.

He expressed pride in the publication, saying, “WeHo News has had a huge impact on public policy, and on the past election. I am very proud of what you have accomplished.”

Council member Prang noted that WeHo News provides in-depth coverage “in a day when larger newspapers simply don’t do local coverage, it’s a valuable resource for people who really want to know what’s going on in the community.”

Other papers, such as the Beverly Press, said council member Prang, “do a good job on the larger issues of the day, but don’t cover” the city with the same hard-edged approach to news, something he called necessary when holding public officials to account.

WeHo council member John Duran presenting Ryan Gierach with a proclamation in October, 2011. Photo by Richard Settle for the City of West Hollywood

That hardball reportage comes under fire from, or more often is dismissed or demeaned by, politicians accustomed to 15 years of coverage by what Mr. Prang called, “cheerleader coverage from the West Hollywood Post,” a now-defunct local hard copy publication that closed shop before the beginning of this century.

Over the seven full years of publication that began September 5, 2005, we have grown to a publication the size of which boggles my mind as I look back.

We have published over 7,200 articles.

We cannot thank enough our commercial sponsors, our loyal cadre of contributors, the community of supporters and our readership for making this publication possible and its first seven years so successful.

On to Volume 8, Issue 1.

Send your 7^th birthday wishes/criticisms to happy7th@wehonews.com for next week’s publication.

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Thanks for reading WeHo News.