Michele's List
Building blocks in the emerging local news ecosystem

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Statistics
Unique monthly visitors

30,000
Average page views

140,000
E-newsletter

  • Yes, a single newsletter
E-newsletter subscribers

1,950
Facebook likes

3,140
Facebook followers

3,286
Twitter followers

1,944
Instagram followers

1,379
You Tube

114
Revenue

  • $51,000 -$100,000
Primary revenue source(s)

  • Local advertising (including web and e-newsletter ads)
Ad products

  • Traditional Web display advertising sold directly by your organization
Paywall

  • No
Distribution

  • Direct to web/mobile
Total personnel/contributor FTE

1
Date of most recent publisher update

05/05/2019
Last Publisher Update

  • 2019-05-05 16:18:05 UTC
New Canaanite
Connecticut
New Canaanite

New Canaanite is a local news webiste that covers and provides in-depth reporting in a town of 20,000 in Connecticut. The site was founded in 2014 by Michael Dinan, who previously oversaw coverage for 48 news sites in Fairfield County, Conn. and Westchester County, N.Y. as a senior regional editor for Patch.com. Revenue: Advertising.

Who is in charge?

Owner

Job title

Owner and Editor

City

New Canaan

State

Connecticut

Zip code

06840

Year launched

2014

Tax status

  • Sole proprietor/no specific tax status

Geographic scope

  • Suburb

Population of coverage area

20,000

Scope of coverage

  • General news or a number of topics that are not necessarily closely related to each other

Primary focus

  • Current news and events

Topics of coverage

  • Business in coverage area
  • Crime & justice
  • Government
  • Planning & development
  • Other

Other content topics

Local history, traffic, pets/wildlife and parking.

Watchdog journalism?

  • Yes, occasional

Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/newcanaanite

Site Twitter handle

@NewCanaanite

Effective engagement practice

Daily newsletter (via Mailchimp). We are up to 1,950 subscribers on our M-F newsletter and the open rate is 65.4%, click thru rate 31.4%. Our unique clicks per open is about 48%.

Revenue challenges

I have no difficulty in this area.

In the news

Behind the Stories: How to Succeed in Hyperlocal News http://digitaljournalism.uconn.edu/blog/behind-the-stories-how-to-succeed-in-hyperlocal-news/?fbclid=IwAR2aGkSBMb6VPA-ysQ8kOhRhNIpS-8J9IRNTNOJx5zy4k62HXSWKO6FCgHE

How Local News Publishers Can Win SMB Ads Against Facebook: A Case Study http://streetfightmag.com/2018/06/28/how-local-news-publishers-can-win-smb-ads-against-facebook-a-case-study/

Hyperlocal News Sites Reshape Media Business with Main Street Focus https://westfaironline.com/100732/hyperlocal-news-sites-reshape-media-business-with-main-street-focus/

How Facebook’s Big Changes Impact One Local Publisher—Some Surprising Conclusions http://streetfightmag.com/2018/03/08/how-facebooks-big-changes-impact-one-local-publisher-some-surprising-conclusions/