LymeLine.com has been covering community news for the towns of Lyme and Old Lyme (which chare a school system) in southeast Connecticut since 2003. Our tagline is 'Updated Daily Or As News Happens." Publisher Olwen Logan launched a sister site in 2009 for the nearby communities of Chester, Deep River and Essex, which also share a s school system: ValleyNewsNow.com Revenue: Advertising.
Veteran publisher Jack Turner founded LymeLine.com in 2003. He was a visionary and believed passionately that the future of the newspaper industry lay online. He was years ahead of his time but he hired me as his news editor despite a less than encouraging field trial. Sadly, Jack's grand experiment failed but in a moment of sheer madness, my husband and I said we'd purchase it and try and keep it going. More sadness, Jack passed away unexpectedly and we nearly closed it down ourselves after six months. Now we are the most widely read news source for community news in our towns (there is a 'Patch' but ...) Our mission is to cover the local news independently, accurately and objectively and to be an integral part of the fabric of the community we serve.
Many readers have our sites set as their homepages.
Facebook & Twitter work well for us to engage a broader audience.
LymeLine.com covers two towns.
ValleyNewsNow.com covers three.
This piece generated a story on WTNH News Channel 8, which was then picked by CNN - LymeLine was credited with sourcing the story in all the resulting articles/broadcasts:
"Very Rare Sturgeon Found on Bank of Connecticut River in Lyme:"
http://lymeline.net/2014/04/very-rare-sturgeon-found-on-bank-of-connecticut-river-in-lyme/