By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor
The NKyTribune is celebrating its first birthday today — with all hands on deck doing what we’ve been doing everyday over the last year: Working diligently to bring back to Northern Kentucky its very own daily newspaper.
A nonprofit public service, the online-only NKyTribune is a publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service, founded by former Kentucky Post editors dedicated to journalism as it should be. We have been joined along the way by other “disenfranchised” but dedicated and ethical journalists who want to do their best work for the people of Northern Kentucky.
It’s fitting on our birthday to welcome yet another one of those to our team. It’s a kind of birthday present to ourselves — and to you.
Vicki Prichard, long-time journalist and terrific story-teller, joins the NKyTribune team as a reporter and editor. She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the community, as a former reporter for The Kentucky Post, The Sunday Challenger and Inside Your Town and as a producer of KET’s 13-part series, NKY, in 1987. She was also a reporter and scriptwriter for KET’s Emmy-award-winning “Where the River Bends, A History of Northern Kentucky.”
She is a journalism graduate from the University of Kentucky and has picked up numerous awards for her work. She has two daughters.
Vicki joins veteran Mark Hansel, managing editor, and long-time NKY sports reporter Terry Boehmker to form a strong core editing team for the Trib.
Over this past year, our analytics show that we have posted more than 4200 stories on these pages for you. They are still there, deep and wide, and will always be available for you to search out — free.
The numbers also showed that you appreciated our content generally — giving us over 825k pageviews — and were drawn by real news coverage (like Dream Street and Mall Road happenings, the abrupt closing of Senior Services of NKY, issues at NKU), by timely features (like a mom’s dying wish to see her daughter graduate or lighter stories about the world’s largest bourbon bar — in Newport or the displacement of a popular tea shop in Florence).
You appreciated the daily obituaries — and the special ones, like the story of cardiologist Dr. John Holmes’ legacy. And our local columnists whose points of view you read, whether or not you agree. And, of course, the high school prep coverage and our special Our Rich History columns you can’t get anywhere else.
Through the rest of our “birth month” we will be re-sharing some of our earlier stories with you — a nice remembrance for those who have already read them and a real treat for those who have tuned in since then and missed a chance the first time.
It’s been quite a ride so far — daily news, creation of a monthly news/feature program for KET (Inside Northern Kentucky) and steady but heady growth. We have big plans — and high hopes — for 2016.
The whole Trib team — including our growing band of freelancers and contributors — joins me in saying thanks for making Year One so memorable. Please share our work and spread the word — like us on Facebook, sign up for our daily e-newsletter, send us your story ideas and your “letters” and commentary.
A great big thanks to our “founding” supporters, the funders and advertisers/sponsors who have made all this possible. The national Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation provided a critical safety net and challenge grant to get us started. Early supporters like Toyota, Central Bank, CVG, VonLehman, meetNKY, AT&T, the Kentucky Innovation Network, Campbellsville University, Tri-ED, Southbank Partners, Skyward, Pomeroy, St. Elizabeth Healthcare (and Sports Medicine), Lawrence Laws, EGC Construction have helped us through a critical year.
We aim to earn others’ support in the months to come so that we can continue to grow and serve.
Perhaps we can count on your support as well. Since the Trib is a nonprofit, contributions are tax-deductible and go directly to engage more journalists in the work of covering your community. You can donate here.
As the termination date of The Kentucky Post grew close, I wrote a column asking who would cover Northern Kentucky when The Post died. By then a UK journalism professor but still a Northern Kentucky resident, I was concerned that the region would get lost in the Cincinnati media. Sure enough, it happened. For the past year, I have seen the answer to my question. The Tribune is Northern Kentucky’s news source. And its early success will only grow. A responsible, community-oriented news media is an important part of any successful region. It allows community leaders to share a vision with the community and receive feedback, it keeps members of the community informed, and it can shine its light on a community’s successes and problems. The Tribune is one of the most important developments in Northern Kentucky in 2015. All of us who have worked with Judy Clabes knew that once she took this on, success was inevitable.
I only found you a couple of months ago but I really like what you are doing. I really like that I don’t have to be a Facebook user to comment. My only niggle is that I’m not fond of your webpage layout. Tough to separate the old from the new. Keep it up!
Marv — Thanks so much. Don’t really understand the niggle about the organization — all the newest stories are at the top of every category and are updated to new stories everyday. When the new ones are put up, the old ones move down, and eventually are knocked off the front page altogether to go to the inside. Our stories never go away — but are always archived and are there in order of the timing of the post on their inside pages, according to category, just like the sections of a newspaper. The newest and best stories of the day (in our judgment) are featured at the top of the page as well but also appear in their appropriate categories (sections). For really special stories (when we have good pictures), we include those in the “sliders” (the feature pictures at the top of the page). And then there’s the news ticker at top — giving readers lots of clues as to the new content and helping time-pressed readers find the stories they want right away. Also, you can sign up to receive our daily e-newsletter into your email box — and it contains links to all the new stories everyday. We really appreciate that you are reading our “newspaper” and that you are commenting on it. (Thanks for catching that misspelling in the headline — we love readers who care about that!)
Congratulations. This is a very difficult endeavor.
Thanks, Kevin. You well know that work you love doesn’t seem so difficult!