The first story posted on metroindependent.com was at 9:55 p.m. on Aug 14, 2013. Twelve months later, more than 1,200 stories have appeared.

The support The Metro Independent has received in the past year has been staggering. From the first day, community leaders, police and fire departments, elected officials, school officials, coaches, players, parents, business owners and etc. embraced the community news and sports coverage we provide.

Our readers have grown from 3,000 people reading 19,000 pages in our first month, to more than 33,000 people reading more than 270,000 pages in July. With a tiny advertising budget, most of our growth has come from word-of-mouth and recommendations from our wonderful readers.

On this one-year anniversary, I want to take the time to thank everyone that has supported this labor of love. The work hours have been long and the sleep hours short, but the feeling I get when readers tell me that they appreciate The Metro Independent’s coverage has made it worthwhile.

The one-year anniversary of our first story has also been a time of reflection. I have not yet been able to make the business profitable, which will likely mean changes to The Metro Independent. I do not yet know what changes will be made.

There are very few community news sources that provide the amount and depth of coverage the Metro Independent has to date. A more selective approach to reporting, especially in-depth reporting, is a likely change.

Investigative reporting is time consuming and expensive. Americans have grown less and less willing to pay for news and advertisers alone cannot support a large newsroom. The combination makes in-depth reporting a less likely product of almost all news organizations, especially community newspapers.

As we work through our coverage and business model to find a method of providing the news The Metro Independent readers value the most and making enough money to support the endeavor, I encourage you to provide feedback to me directly. I can be reached at rogerstarkey@metroindependent.com.

Thank you again for your tremendous support this past year. It has been a great pleasure to serve the readers.

Roger Starkey, Owner/Editor