The Hub News at 6 Weeks: A Progress Update
By Ryan Dahnert
It’s been approximately six weeks since “The Hub” was launched as an experimental project intended to inform residents about local candidates running in this year's election. We were fully prepared for a tepid reception, but the community response in Jordan and Shakopee has been remarkable, and underscores the need for sustained local journalism.
Over the first six weeks, along with my co-founder Mike Franklin, and support from the Cities of Jordan and Shakopee, and Jordan Public Schools, we have posted 30 pieces of content. 15 articles and 15 podcasts, meaning on average, we’ve been able to put out 5 pieces of multimedia content per week.
And the response? Since we launched, our website has received over 17,700 page views from 8,096 users! Our Shakopee and Jordan facebook pages have over 1,200 followers, and our podcasts have been downloaded over 2,900 times.
So what’s next? We have formed The Hub News as a non-profit organization and are currently working with legal counsel to form our board of directors and pursue 501(c)3 status so we can accept tax deductible donations. We are able to move forward with these and other start-up costs thanks to the vision and financial support of some amazing businesses who have agreed to become founding sponsors of The Hub News. You will be hearing much more about them in the coming weeks.
Over the next month, expect more election related coverage as well as the gradual scaling up of both Shakopee and Jordan school coverage and other topics of community interest brought to you by an increasing number of contributors.
How can you help? If you are a business or organization, we would love to have you join the ranks of our founding sponsors. We will be wrapping this effort up in the next few weeks. Please contact us if you’d like to learn more.
If you are an individual, you can provide financial support by becoming a paid subscriber on a monthly or annual basis. What do you receive as a paid-subscriber? First and foremost, you help The Hub News fund its growth. In addition, paid subscribers can comment on articles on the website and will be able to access our full content archive after election day. As we grow, we will add more subscriber-only content and benefits.
In addition to financial support, we are looking for members of the community willing to contribute their time to write articles, submit photographs of events and more. If you have a skillset you’d be willing to provide as a volunteer, please contact us.
Lastly, if you’ve enjoyed our content and believe in the need for community journalism, help spread the word and share our content with others. We are committed to building a sustainable non-profit news organization in the southwest metro. There will be continuous experimentation and iteration. We won’t always get things right, but with a little bit of grace and patience from the community, we believe we can build something special.