Salem-News.com made the front page of Google's national news section again this week, for the fourth time in two months. For a fledgling news organization, that's called being on top of it boys...
(SALEM) - We won't start out by trying to tell you that we aren't different. But as far as we can tell, Salem-News.com is the only news group in the United States that has experienced major growth without being the offshoot of a newspaper, TV or radio station.
That is different, and it is historic.
What we are is a group of experienced broadcast journalists who pooled their talent, and launched a news Website for a capitol city that has been overlooked for decades by TV newsrooms in Portland, Oregon.
Accepted as a part of the Google world wide news feed in June, we have been throwing the name Salem around the globe like nobody has ever done before.
It is a new world with the Internet, and we have a new approach when it comes to media groups.
You could say it is really a matter of the lay of the land. Portland, Eugene, Medofrd, Roseburg, Bend and Coos Bay are the Oregon regions that were designated 'TV markets' in 1947 when that industry was new.
They get it all, and the rest of us get nothing. But the people who formed those regions long ago probably assumed that the stations would cover those regions they were provided, and they don't.
You could almost call it an overlooked obligation. But the truth is, TV news is anything but a democracy, so some places win and some lose, and we can do little to sway the federal government on where the lines are drawn
But rather than fret, we discovered that the Internet is the perfect place to make up for the short-sightedness of both the federal government and Portland's TV newsrooms. Salem-News.com has been generating a consistently growing audience from the day it started, and with the wisdom of our Web designer Matt Lintz in the mix, victory is certain.
Sorry television, we do it all and the day is not far off when we will do it all better too. We already produce news stories at a higher level than most, and all kinds of ideas are in line next.
Salem-News.com gives residents a new choice, a way to receive their news from somebody other than a big corporate giant that happens to have a newspaper here.
And we give Portland TV a run for their money, with a different selection process for the stories we cover. We know you need to know the bad news too, we publish that and we also include pictures. But the video reports when possible, are about positive and interesting things.
A good example of a story we covered exclusively, was the commissioning ceremony for Oregon's first African/American General, Gary Dean. Wasn't worth an hour, is that the story Portland? It gets more interesting too; knowing it was an extremely historic event, we offered that video to Portland newsrooms so they could have it that night and guess what? No takers.
That's OK, we expected it. That is why we are here.
So when you think of Salem, Oregon, think of the only group in the nation that has set out to use the Internet as home and provide news coverage for an area that really needs it.
Please understand that your support of Salem-News.com is invaluable. We are growing and we have huge plans that also reach out far beyond Salem. If you are interested in what we are doing and in speeding the process by investing in Salem-News.com, please let us know by contacting us at newsroom@salem-news.com.
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