Retrospective

As the week draws to a close and we're huddled up in our home in Columbia City, I'm beaming. This has been a really, really big week. I can't go fully into the details at this point, but some significant things have taken place this week that lead me to believe I'm doing the right thing by starting this little business adventure called Talk of the Town.

This week, we hit record readership highs and page views -- meaning not only did we have many faithful readers return to the site, but many of you shared the site with friends who became new visitors and people spent a significant amount of time reading the news we're providing. Thank you to those of you who've been sending in news items as well as those who've sent words of encouragement and support.

As of this week, we are also in the process of welcoming several new advertisers. Thank you to each of you as well as those who've been supporters of this site from the beginning. Thanks also to those readers who have been great supporters of Talk of the Town's advertisers -- because of you, they've experienced some very wonderful things in recent weeks as well.

We've been able to expand our offerings this week with the addition of a new guest column section called "Community Voices." In this area, we hope to have regular contributors share their own unique points of view. Everyone is welcome to participate. I really love the idea of everyone having an opportunity to bring their own vision to this site -- it's not just my website, it is our community's website. I'm just the facilitator.

Thanks to the efforts of Jim Banks, Whitley County Republican Party chairman, I was able to personally interview Governor Mitch Daniels and present the questions many of our readers wanted to ask him. It was tremendously exciting and enlightening to ask these questions and to hear his response. I had the same feeling of giddiness as I did as a teen when I attended the Thomas Marshall Dinner and had the opportunity to photograph then-Governor Evan Bayh for a local newspaper. In both instances, I left those meetings with a better understanding and concern for government and the rights and responsibilities we have as citizens to be a part of the political process. 

It was also awesome that we were able to unveil an entirely new aspect of this site -- we are now capable of offering video and audio files in addition to our daily coverage of local events. How great will it be to not only look at photographs of our community, but to hear our residents speak or watch videos of what's happening here? The possibilities that presents are endless. That is a whole new frontier for Whitley County media.

Finally, I personally have some wonderful news to announce within the next several days and weeks -- the real icing on the cake of what will go down as a great week for Talk of the Town. Stay tuned!

I'll close by thanking God, my family and friends, my advertisers and my readers who find value in a free, local, community-minded media source that was developed with the best of intentions for enlightening, embracing and uplifting what I feel is the best community in Northeast Indiana.

Jennifer Zartman Romano