It started with an idea and a question. And, once the idea became reality, the question was answered. And then that first idea and question have spawned countless other ideas and questions... Isn't that the way it usually happens?

The idea was this: To create a news website dedicated to the Prescott quad-city community. No state news - there are a lot of other ways for people to get news about Arizona as a whole. No national news - same reasoning. No, this would be a site that contained only stories and information specifically for the people who live in and around Prescott. It would be primarily a website for the news, not simply a newspaper placed online. It would capitalize on the advantages offered by the internet.

The question was simple: Will they care?  If we build a news site about Prescott, will the people in this community care enough to read it?

And so, we built the site, calling it Prescott eNews.  The "e", of course, stands for "electronic".  We registered with various governmental agencies as a news organization towards the end of June, we started attending meetings, and we reported on the news that we found. Early on, we made some important decisions - since we believe that most of the news in Prescott is actually "good" news, we'd focus on that. At no point would we ignore the bad news, but we refused to sensationalize it. We also tried to focus on people, because we think that readers are really interested in the person behind the story. And we wanted to provide information that would be of interest to as many people as possible, but not easily found anywhere else. We wanted to keep the style easy to read, and make sure our content was well-researched and cross-referenced.

We had taken on an enormous task, even more enormous than we realized at first. But the answer to our question was quickly apparent: YES! People not only cared about what we wrote, they craved more. 

So, we quickly re-engineered and redesigned Prescott eNews, launching the new look and feel in September. Since then, we've added new columnists, and brought you news that you simply can't find anywhere else. Stories that touched us all, like the story about Curly Leyva , or Adoption Day . Stories that excited our sense of adventure, like the Air Fest - which included our first-ever photo gallery! We told the stories about what our kids are doing, like Northpoint students planning to go to South Africa. We even told of people who really like working for WalMart . We brought a different perspective on growth and Open Space . And we even let you hear Ken Bennett's tribute in song to Rowle Simmons, surely a treat not to be missed!

Of course, we couldn't have done any of this without the support of you, our readers. You are so appreciated, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 

Looking Forward 

So, what's coming up at Prescott eNews? Well, look for additional columnists and features. We want to cover more stories than we have before. We also want to put a greater emphasis on Citizen Reporters - that's you, writing the stories you think are significant and terrific! We'll be starting up a newsletter, too. And, we want to tell more of the stories from the entire quad-city area. 

In short, Prescott eNews plans to grow and evolve, and we're thrilled that you're here to join us. 

Thanks so much for an awesome 6 months! We can't wait to see what the coming year will bring! 

PS It just wouldn't be proper to write this article without giving a huge thanks to our columnists and contributors. Without you, we wouldn't have received a "Yes" answer to our question, "Will they care?" So, thank you, thank you. You're terrific.

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Congratulations!
written by Debbie Stewart, January 03, 2008

Congratulations on the success of the publication thus far! Your research and coverage of stories is top notch and I especially appreciate your focus on "good news" - it's so refreshing. There are so many caring, concerned, involved people in our communities but we can easily get depressed when listening to the news and reading about all the bad stuff. Thanks for your upbeat attitude, your desire to search out the everyday heroes, and your ability to focus on how we might remedy bad situations. Keep up the great work!

Debbie Stewart, Nonprofit Consultant
Stewart Communications

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