A Letter from the Executive Editor

I think, after three years, this website has reached a point where we have to take ourselves seriously. I have approached this project in the way I approach everything: try a ton of different things and see what works. Our comfortable obscurity made it possible for us to experiment wildly without worrying about alienating the audience, because in the beginning our audience was mostly comprised of blood relatives.

Enough of the things we have tried have worked. OKC.NET consistently receives hundreds of thousands of page views per month, and if you want to know how many exactly, email us for an ad sheet. We’ve also substantially grown our social media following because we actively engage our audience. But even so, I distinctly remember how excited I was that we had gotten a thousand page views in one day for the first time. In the years since then we have covered everything from music and art to quirky profiles on human sexuality to comic books to local elections and more. We have worked with dozens of immeasurably talented writers, editors, photographers, videographers, audio engineers, and designers. What we have now is something different and better than what we started with, so it’s as good a time as any to take stock of where we are and what we want to do going forward.

What I want to do, above and beyond anything else, is give exposure to people, businesses, and places that are either bringing in new ideas or helping old ideas evolve. Sometimes our coverage overlaps with other media outlets, but adding to the echo chamber is not our goal. I want to talk about the things that matter to the diverse segments of Oklahoma’s population, because I have faith that some of you care enough to read about it from an alternative perspective. I also want to shine a light on the people and projects that may not have a well-oiled publicity machine behind them. I know what it is like to start something from scratch and how important it is to earn your first bit of exposure.

I also want to find fresh voices and viewpoints and give them a chance to be heard. Some of our best writers aren’t writers by trade, they’re people who are passionate and invested in their area of interest and want to share their knowledge. That passion for the subject at hand comes through in their work. We rarely assign people stories; we prefer that people come to us with ideas.

None of this would be possible if there weren’t people like you reading and supporting us, so let me thank you personally. The Internet troll comment of choice when I first started out was “no one reads your websitezz lol” or something to that effect. It was sort of true then, but it’s not true now, and that’s thanks to you. In the coming months I’m going to work to make the website more interactive and community based. Initially we didn’t have comments at all, because I’ve never found comment threads to be enlightening or helpful in any way. The world disagrees, however, so I’m going to do what I can to be more engaging and engaged.

Anyway, these letters can have a way of dragging on, so I’ll wrap it up here. Thanks so much for supporting us! It means the world to us, quite literally. If you would like to be a part of our growth, ads and donations are happily accepted. If you want to be a part of our team or would like some coverage for your crazy dream, e-mail us.

Colin Newman
Executive Editor

Just like the Scissortail Fly Catcher over I-40, some of you have come to love what we represent in the way that we do, we appreciate that you’ve stuck with OKC.NET.