Hello 2011

Editorial

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Here we go, another year. Looking back on 2010, it was pretty good for The Rio Times. We did not meet all our goals for the year, but we’re moving in the right direction. The most progress has been in the caliber of our News Team, as we continue to get better-and-better reporters. Of course, we’re happy to have consistently put a new issue out each week, rain or shine.

Next year, or this year rather – whatever 2011 is – we’ve got some really exciting plans. Of course our growth rate is dependent on Advertiser support, so our pace may fluctuate, but we’re working hard to develop some form of Print version.

We’re also expecting to launch a Message Board/Forum in the first quarter, as well as some new services like Portuguese lessons and potentially translation and online marketing services, maybe even start an events promotion effort.

A major goal for the Online version is to move to more frequent updates as well, potentially daily if we can ramp up our News Team. We’ve remained weekly in order to ensure a consistent product, but we realize the web is built for a continuous flow of information.

Now it also seems like a good time to take stock of what we have accomplished in 2010 from a news product perspective. I’m sure some things will be left out, but here is a list of highlights in quasi-chronological order.

– Re-launched our Nightlife Guide (was previously an Events Calendar)
– Started an Op-Ed Section
– Had our One-Year Anniversary party
– Developed a Printed Rate Card
– Had Reporters interviewed for CTV and published in The Calgary Herald
– Added a Weather widget
– Launched the Business Directory
– Implemented an Ad Serving System (to help keep track of views/clicks of Banners)
– Started our Weekly Issue Email Reminders
– Had Reporters published in The Guardian and Sunday Telegraph
– Implemented a Surveys and Polls feature for the elections
– Launched our Travel Services feature
– Had Reporters and Editors interviews on CNN International and Sky TV
– Reached 1,000 Facebook Fans
– Added our Subscribe to Comments feature

Also, as we look at our 2010 Readership statistics, we’ve had almost 500,000 Pageviews and almost doubled our Monthly Readership levels (from approximately 26,000 to 48,000 views/month).

Okay, enough back-slapping, time to get to work on those 2011 plans.