Five years and going strong

Wednesday 25th August was the 5th anniversary of the launch of Audlem Online. Five years, we know, doesn't quite warrant a message from the Queen, but we thought a few words about the website's progress over those years couldn't be resisted.

When we started AudlemOnline the webteam set itself a target of publishing at least one news story each day. It seemed daunting, very daunting. Could such a small rural community create enough news? But then, what we hadn't fully appreciated was the amazing energy in this area. The stories simply flooded in.

To date we've run 4,770 separate news stories and, so far, we haven't missed a day. True, occasionally a little creativity has been required but the flow seems to be getting stronger and three or four news items daily now seems the norm.

ReadersWe also wondered what size of audience we might attract. Broadband had only been in Audlem a short time. Were people really going to check out a local website? So, imagine the wild celebrations when we first hit fifty readers in a single day. And then, unbridled joy when Audlem won a raft of national and regional Village of the Year awards in December 2005 – and over one hundred people clicked on to get the news the minute we received it from London. Heady days!

Now, five years on, our daily readership is normally 600 to 700. July 2010 was our best yet when we almost broke through the 20,000 readers barrier. Almost, we have to admit, but 19,926 is a fantastic figure as most village websites would be very happy with a thousand readers in a month.

In May 2009 we introduced a completely new look and features which are unique to AudlemOnline such as the puzzles section. These have proved very popular and daily readership has more than doubled since last year. The Chatbox was another new feature which, we have to admit, causes the odd anxious moment but which also triggers some intriguing local debates.

The teamThere's a huge amount of technical work that's gone into the development of Audlem Online. The first few years were down entirely to John Gunstone. Since then he's been joined by John Tilling. As editor, I have to say it's remarkable to see one of the early pioneers of computer programming working in tandem with a younger talent, the two bouncing ideas off each other and, I guess, still learning much from each other.

Pam Seddon is the fourth member of the webteam who looks after much of the information in the Organisations section and provides a much needed steadying hand when your editor is hell-bent on yet another campaign or wild idea.

New ideas are still being worked on – a Buy/Sell/Wanted/Free to a good home section has now been developed – we think aBuy seems a snappy name – and an audio section is coming along nicely, although those that have already stepped up to the mike may wonder if they'll ever be heard. Monthly audio round-ups have, however, been launched this year.

Those five years of news and comment wouldn't have materialised, dear reader, without you. The flow of news, suggestions, campaign ideas is down to you taking the interest to click on to AudlemOnline regularly. We know our readers come from near and far and it's always satisfying when we receive emails from Oz, New Zealand, Canada, the States and elsewhere with news or comment.

It's also the readership, including our friends in local newspapers and radio stations, that make our campaigns all the more effective – our battles for a better ambulance service; keeping our fire tender, day care facilities, permanent moorings on the canal; de-priming the A525 and much more have been successful because the one thing the providers of such services really hate is bad publicity.

Businesses and EventsThe initial reason for launching AudlemOnline was to support our many local businesses. The past five years has coincided with the most amazing expansion in local facilities – for example, eight new shops so far in the past ten months in Audlem. And this at a time when villages and market towns are more likely to be seeing closures on their high streets.

Success on this scale means we'll have to keep campaigning. We make no excuses for the many stories we run promoting our shops, pubs, eating facilities and other local businesses. Those businesses, plus the many events run by Audlem's clubs, societies and community groups are what make this such a vibrant community.

Thank YouWe hope in the next five years we can continue to entertain and inform you. Thank you for sticking with us. Thank you, most of all, for your support and interest.

By the way, if you're wondering about the photo, it's amazing what you find trawling through Google Images looking for a new angle on the village. And coincidentally, it features another aspect of Audlem that was just about to arrive on the scene when the website was launched.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.