The Diary, 15 years on ...
This month completes 15 full years of the Kilcullen Diary, which is something that has prompted me to a little reflection, writes Brian Byrne.
I didn't know what to expect when I posted the first few stories in January 2005. Though I did know that there was a place for local news on the internet. For the previous seven years, with colleague Trish Whelan, we had developed and produced the first such in the country under the banner of KildareNet News or KNN. We closed that in 2004 because it was taking too much of our time when we had other enterprises to pursue in the journalism and publishing world.
But I had this sense that there might be an even more local opportunity here in my own town. Where my journalism had started, first with The Bridge, later contributing Kilcullen stories and photos to the two local papers — the Nationalist and the Leinster Leader. Afterwards my work went national in newspapers, magazines, and radio. And later I moved into publishing as well.
Fifteen years ago I wanted to see if there was a space for an internet-based news commentary just for Kilcullen. One main street and some housing estates. A village that had recently grown bigger.
I expected it to be an experiment. Maybe I could keep it going for a couple of months and prove the concept. Or not. Would there be enough to report on? Every day?
The answer? Fifteen years on, there have been about 16,000 stories posted on the Kilcullen Diary. I have published something almost every one of the days over those years. The average over the 15 years is obviously three stories a day, but taken over more recent years it is now about twice that rate.
Clearly 2020 was different. We lost so many events and ordinary gatherings, meetings of community and sports groups, business news, fundraisers, schools happenings, and seasonal celebrations. Covid-19 became the biggest tag line to what we were reporting. A negative theme in itself, yet generating many positive stories of community and social 'minding each other'. Also of ingenuity in adapting to what were at times unknown or variable restrictive conditions. At this time of writing we're far from out of the woods, but there is a brightening beyond the furthest visible trees.
As for the Diary in nuts and bolts, in the year 2020 the site registered 5.5m Page Views in more than 748,000 Visitor Sessions.
More than seven in ten (72pc) readers were from Ireland (eg, all people in the Kilcullen area or with an interest in Kilcullen), while the next largest source of visitors was the US with 17pc share. The balance came from the UK, Norway, Australia, Canada, Germany, France and India, in descending values.
In all, some 2,200 stories were posted in the year, substantially ahead of the 1,000 or so posts average since the site was established. Despite the most difficult year for everybody, readership levels have been retained.
The introduction of the Kilcullen Diary Podcasts has added to the interest both for me and for listeners, who are growing in numbers every month. These will be further developed during 2021 now that I have a level of data of listener interests.
My deepest thanks to all who have contributed, followed, supported and advertised on something that I never expected to turn out the way it has. But which has become a very major part of my daily life.
It keeps me on my toes, which means it also gets me out of bed every morning with more to do than there is time for in the day, given that I also have other commitments on my schedule.
That's how it should be …
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