ARLnow’s parent company, Local News Now, is proud to announce three new full-time hires.
These hires, two of which are for newly-created positions, are made possible by a strong recovery in LNN’s advertising business since the depths of the pandemic-induced recession. We were further emboldened to add to our team, despite uncertainty about the economy and the pandemic, by our ARLnow Patreon community and the support provided by readers.
At least for now, ARLnow has weathered the storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and we’ve done it with your help.
Back in March and April, things were looking bleak. For a time, advertising sales were down over 40% and new sales had nearly stopped. We were staring into a void of financial losses and a worsening economic picture. But then things started going right.
Do you operate a small business in Arlington that is open but struggling amid the coronavirus shutdown?
We know the feeling. And we want to help.
A week ago, we leveled with you: a deterioration in the advertising business is putting ARLnow in a tough spot.
Tonight we’re happy to say that readers have answered our call for temporary support and provided a meaningful level of donations via Paypal and monthly pledges via Patreon.
Last month, ARLnow set a new all-time readership record: 1.45 million pageviews. In the nine days since the first coronavirus case was reported in Arlington, we have blown that away, setting fresh records every night.
For the past 30 days, we’ve served 600,000 readers and just under 2 million pageviews.
ARLnow is moving to remove old crime reports from internet searches.
After a review of past articles, we made the decision to keep the crime report articles on our site, but to mark each as pages that should not be indexed by Google, Bing and others.
Maybe it’s the lousy weather keeping everyone glued to their phones and computers. Maybe it’s people tiring of the endless stream of national political news. Or maybe there’s just been a lot going on locally.
Whatever the explanation, ARLnow has officially set a new 30-day web traffic record.
On Jan. 29, 2010, ARLnow.com launched with an inauspicious post that basically no one except the family and friends of the site’s owner read. It was followed by a post about 2-4 inches of snow in the forecast.
Ten years later, despite major challenges in the local news biz, this site is still around. A quarter million people read it each month. We have a dedicated, full-time team; a newly-formed alumni group; a long list of fantastic advertising clients (thank you for supporting local journalism!); and an office in a Ballston high-rise complete with a mini fridge stocked with Diet Coke and a granola bar drawer.
An ARLnow reporter is leaving but a familiar face and a new intern will be joining the team in January.
ARLnow’s Kalina Newman is leaving to pursue a new career in organized labor as the Press Secretary for the AFL-CIO. Her last day is today.
ARLnow’s mission is to connect and improve our local community — residents, workers, local businesses, nonprofits and government — via high quality, original journalism and photography.
In addition to our own reporting, we seek to fulfil our mission via contributions from community members. As part of that, we’re debuting a new slate of opinion columns, focused on specific local topics, starting Monday. These columns will alternate every other week with our existing columns: Progressive Voice, The Right Note, Peter’s Take, and What’s Next With Nicole.
At long last, ARLnow is getting a sister site in Alexandria.
ALXnow — feel free to call it “Alexandria Now” — will launch on Tuesday, Oct. 1, after six years of *almost* deciding to launch in the city to Arlington’s south. (Check out the “joined” date on the @AlexandriaNow Twitter account.)
ARLnow.com has set a new 30-day readership record.
From June 25-July 24, more than 400,000 unique users visited the local news site, viewing 1.41 million pages, according to Google Analytics. The average unique user, as measured by Google Analytics, read 3.5 pages during the month, though those returning 15 or more times throughout the month accounted for more than half of ARLnow’s pageviews.
