NewCanaanite.com Hits 8-Year Mark; February Coffee Canceled

NewCanaanite.com this week marks its 8th anniversary.

I launched it Jan. 31, 2014—a Friday, two days after being laid off by Patch, an AOL-owned news business that was in the process of being sold.

Hours after that layoff, I called my brother Terry, who encouraged me to start my own news website. He told me that the domain NewCanaanite.com was available (here’s a podcast with me and Terry).

Though I’d never had my own website, owned a business or sold an ad, I had more than 10 years of news reporting under my belt and knew how to cover a community online after four years at Patch.

After reserving the domain, I created Facebook and Twitter accounts, posting as the site launched:

Hello New Canaan

— NewCanaanite.com (@NewCanaanite) January 31, 2014

Then I started showing up to public meetings and writing news articles, switched to the Largo theme on WordPress, launched our daily newsletter and signed on with an ad service provider called Broadstreet, which we still use. 

Within one year the business was profitable, thanks to support from advertisers such as Bob’s Sports, Walter Stewart’s Market, Karl Chevrolet, Stewarts Spirits, New Canaan Music, Denise Gannalo, Christine Saxe and Baskin-Robbins. Soon we had more anchor businesses coming on board, such as Francos Wine Merchants, Rucci Law Group, The Sneddon Team and Bankwell. 

I became more involved in the community, as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, eventually serving on the organization’s board, the Kiwanis Club and NCHS Senior Internship Program committee. I currently am a member of the New Canaan Coalition. We started winning awards from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists and getting covered in the media. We presented to service organizations, forged partnerships with local organizations such as New Canaan Library, where our monthly Community Coffee is held (it’s canceled for February, same reasons as last month), and appointed an Editorial Advisory Council.

In 2021, traffic on the site exceeded 2.2 million pageviews, up 5.6% from the prior year. January 2022 was our highest-ever single traffic month, at 242,562 pageviews, up 35% from the year-ago month. During the month, we launched the “Who Knew?” monthly column, sponsored by Walter Stewart’s, and a new partnership with the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society. 

As the site continues to grow in 2022, we are expanding coverage and news staff—stay tuned.

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