It's hard to believe it's here, but The Kerr County Lead celebrates its first anniversary on Aug. 19. Some of you know that The Lead's origins date to January 2021. Still, we consider Aug. 19 the official launch date because it's when we officially launched on bulletin.com.
To celebrate this, we're inviting our paid subscribers to attend an anniversary reception from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 19 at Pint and Plow Brewing Co. in Kerrville. We will have food and the latest brew from Pint and Plow to sample.
Please RSVP here: https://forms.gle/L6R1xN44WPNrUK4i8
We are accepting RSVPs through Aug. 15.
Over the last year, we've continually worked to develop The Lead as your go-to source for essential Kerr County news. We are still building The Lead, but we want to share the accomplishments of last year.
- We've written more than 830 articles distributed through our email newsletter, social media and kerrcountylead.com.
- Our signature content piece, The Lead Live, will complete more than 250 shows. In 2022, we have already visited with more than 400 guests and produced over 175 hours of original content. The live show attracted more than 400,000 visitors over the last year.
- We now have more than 3,200 subscribers and 6,300 followers on our social media channels.
- We have provided high-quality breaking news and analysis that is unmatched in the market.
- The Lead was awarded grant funding through the Google News Initiative and the Local Independent Online News organization.
- Harvard's Nieman Lab and other publications have written about The Lead's launch.
But what's next? The big news for us is that our primary benefactor, Meta Facebook, announced last month that it would be scaling back its efforts to present high-quality news, including long-term funding for The Lead and other independent producers. So, that leaves us a year to figure out a transition plan to a new platform that will accommodate our subscribers and viewers.
One direction we are taking is crowdsourcing our efforts to match a $6,000 one-time grant from Google to ensure we have a sustainability plan for our future growth. That plan includes hiring a business development manager, transitioning to a new content management system and improving our live video production efforts. We believe we're on the right track and have a model that will deliver in the future, especially in the shifting winds of the media landscape.
If you're interested in helping us match those dollars, please donate here: https://checkout.square.site/merchant/MLEWCF2K4ASZZ/checkout/YE5IHXVYW4GJ5HUOOKXJDI4E
We look forward to seeing you. Once again, this is a free event for all paid subscribers, but please RSVP before attending. https://forms.gle/L6R1xN44WPNrUK4i8
