Opinion : A year, already?

ACT 1 was preparing to open its spring show. The Vinton-Shellsburg Jazz Band was celebrating its second place finish at the Jazz Festival, and its invitation to the Iowa High School Jazz Championships in April.

You may have read those stories this week on Vinton Today.

Or you may have read them a year ago today on Vinton Today.

Exactly one year ago, Vinton Today published its first stories. They included the 2010 Jazz Band's success, as well as a story about the opening of the 2010 ACT 1 show, "The Miser."

We didn't know, a year ago, how successful we would, or would not be. I do not believe there is another online only newspaper serving a small town in Iowa. Without any previous examples to guide us, we simply tried to make the best educated guesses about how such a web site would work, what we could offer, and how to set up the business side of it. We felt like we were building a plane as it taxied along the runway, or a ship in the middle of its journey across the ocean.

And while we have come up with a formula that works, we realize that the world of the Internet is changing almost daily. How we bring you the news is likely to change as new technologies give us new opportunities (and yes, at times, new challenges).

A year ago, we were thrilled when a former Vinton resident put a notice on her Facebook page about Vinton Today, and we had more than 4,000 page views in a single day. This week, we have had more than 4,000 every weekday, and another 4,000 over the weekend.

Next week, we will pass 1 million total page views. We are on pace to reach our second million before the end of 2011.

Every person who has sent us a story or news release, and every person who has read a story and told someone else about us, has played a part in keeping us going for a year. Thanks to all of you, and to all of the business sponsors who support us with their advertising dollars.

We plan on doing this as long as there is a need and a demand for daily news about our community, our government and our people.

And from where we are today, it appears that the demand will be there for many years to come.

"I was just inundated with comments after you wrote a story about me," said a local leader this week. You must be very happy with the response you are getting at Vinton Today."

Yes, we are.

Thanks for getting us to our first year. And a special thanks to everyone who did anything to make it possible, starting with Kurt & Lu and the staff at Monkeytown for giving us the technology and the inspiration.

We owe a lot of people a lot of gratitude for making this possible.

I'd love to write a review of some of the top stories from our first year, but today I just don't have time. There are too many things to share with you about what is going on in Vinton, Today.

The support we received over our first year means that we have been given another year to write about Vinton. It starts today.