Wow!
It took use three and a half years to get to a million. It took us 15 months to get to 2 million.
This seems like as good a time as any to share with readers an interesting analysis of Talk of the Sound that found its way to me a while back. This was, I am told, a presentation to the New Rochelle Board of Education by Dr. Christine Coleman in the wake of the media frenzy that erupted after the story that put Talk of the Sound on the map: Now Playing in New Rochelle, “Book, Interrupted”.
For those readers who were not following Talk of the Sound back in 2008 (and that would be almost all of you!), I wrote a story about how the head of the English department had torn an entire chapter out of every school copy of the book “Girl, Interrupted” which was made into a major motion picture starring Angela Jolie and Winona Ryder. Jolie won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the film.
A Google Search today reveals over 21,000 web pages referencing our story.
The Board of Education was not terribly happy and so began in earnest a battle that still rages today.
New Rochelle Board of Education Analysis – Talk of the Sound-Dec. 2008
The first thing I noticed looking through the report today is that the Sitemeter page in the report has our lifetime traffic number as 9,163. So, that was 1,990,837 visitors ago.
One that I love is that I am referred to several times as The Blog Master. Heh!
There are several pages of ideas from Dr. Coleman on how to counter Talk of the Sound including:
The key is if you are getting a lot of people complaining about something, solve the issue and get back to them. Be transparent in your dealings or the negative search engine results you have now will only continue to get worse.
This is the most prophetic line in the entire report…to bad the board chose not to listen to Dr. Coleman.
For those who do not know, the Board of Education refuses to acknowledge Talk of the Sound as a media outlet even though we are the largest New Rochelle news outlet. As part of that, they refuse to send me press releases. They have a press release section on their web site but have never posted a press release there solely because they want to prevent me from being able to publish their press releases.
That last bit is hilarious to me. I am inundated with requests every day from dozens of organizations asking me to read their press releases, promote their events or link to the sites. Every government agency from the City of New Rochelle up to the Westchester County Health Department to the U.S. Department of Justice flood me with press releases. The school district where I live, where my kids attend school, where my wife works, keeps all their press releases top secret. Instead they send them to places like WVOX or the Journal News or News 12 which almost never runs them.
Hey! It’s never too late.
It came up again at last night’s board meeting so I took the opportunity to point out that Talk of the Sound does more than every other media outlet to cover the New Rochelle schools and promote their meetings and events and reaches a far bigger audience with that information than anyone else.
No one on the board disputed that but no offered to start getting me press releases either.
Oh well, maybe when we get to 3,000,000.
Thanks Bob and everyone from TOTS!
Bob, Truth speaks volumes.
There was a need for a way to keep the people of New Rochelle informed. Believe me there is a lot more going on around here than people realize or saw in the past. You filled that need and succeeded. If that need wasn’t there, TOTS would not have grown as it has. Many of your detractors or malcontents say that many things written are not true or they are made up. If you weren’t telling the truth you would not have even gotten to the original one million. So much for the Nay Sayers! People may not appreciate the manner in which it comes out some of the times, but that is the business side of journalism. Headlines sell.
People speak at Citizen to be Heard, The Board of Education Meetings, send e-mails, write letters, sign petitions, stage protests and file law suits and no one down at City Hall listens. No one responds or follows up to a question with any type of response that would even come close to being an answer. It is because of TOTS that more attention is being paid to The City of New Rochelle and The New Rochelle Board of Education for both the positive and negative reports. More is reported and not suppressed in the Journal News and picked up by the other local media today than ever before. That is because of TOTS and you are there for New Rochelle the others weren’t. More is covered here than just the news, this site preforms a valuable service for the community.
Thank You for giving the people a place to have a voice and conversation.
Thank you Bob
We live in the 7th Largest City in New York State.
The Political Power Brokers prefer to continue to run around like Roaches in total darkness.
They prefer to spin their presentations to The Journal News as they can try and leverage the offering with the Political Ads at bay.
I first heard of your desire to start this Blog sometime during and after the Ward Acres Dog walker’s were running into Barry Fertel’s bright ideas.
I am delighted that we have someplace to read of the vast stupidity and shine the light on the Roaches.
They are scattering on a regular basis. That said I am hoping that more heat is brought on to them at the State level. Some of this may rise to stupidity but some of it may be a breach of public trust while some may just be Criminality. New Rochelle is better for you having put on the pressure but there is much work to do to bring down those who think they are immune. More and more people are reading and formulating opinions not based upon the head honchos propaganda but based upon reality and fact.
Keep it up we are looking forward to 4 million but more so we are looking forward to cleaning up this dirty little mess we call home.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Bob and every TOTS contributor and viewer. This site has allowed everyone a venue to expose injustice and celebrate achievement. Whether viewing civil servants sleeping on a deserted, dead end street or celebrating New Ro Football Championship, everyone can find information of interest. Unfortunately, the power brokers in government haven’t realized it is better to be transparent and deal with situations as they arise but Bob, with help from TOTS contributors, is steadily turning the tide.
I wish good health and continued success to Bob and look forward to contributing in the future. The 2,000,000 mark is a testament that citizens want to make New Rochelle a better place to live and raise a family. The 3,000,000 milestone is closer than we think since TOTS is like a snowball rolling downhill; it grows larger and moves faster every minute.
Quite right, Anthony, and congrats to Bob…
for exposing the unethical do-nothing Mayor that is Bramson to TWO MILLION READERS.
Hey Idoni II – THAT’S TWO MILLION READERS!
Sadly, there are still enough uneducated citizens who will allow you to sit at the Right Hand Of Idoni I and probably (PLEASE prove me wrong, good citizens of New Rochelle) allow you to raze the Armory and appoint your unethical do-nothing Mayoral replacement Idoni III before you leave, but perhaps not.
Perhaps the optimists will be right after all. If only. No matter, it makes me smile that the
government crooks in New Rochelle, the former Queen City Of The Sound, hate TOTS and think doing an Emperor’s Clothes on it will make it go away.
Not going to happen, crooks in New Rochelle government – one of these days, your crooked regime will come to an ignoble end.
If only.
Now THAT’S a milestone! Thanks Bob
Seems like only yesterday TOS was celebrating a mere 100,000 visitors. Vision and persistence have opened the gates of true reporting on the issues in New Rochelle. Nobody does it better. Continued success and thanks again to Bob and all of the contributors who make this the go- to place for news in New Rochelle. 3 million by june 2014 -Anyone want in on the pool?
Thank You Bob !
Congratulations on reaching this important milestone. It disturbs me to find out that the BOE and administration are wasting valuable resources on devising strategies to counter a blog rather than focus on the mission of educating children. Keep up the good work and thank you for your service and dedication to the community.