thebatavian

Three or four years ago I was in Washington, D.C. to speak at some journalism conference and I stopped into the office of Reason, the libertarian magazine. A good friend of mine, Matt Welch, had recently moved to D.C. to become editor-in-chief of Reason.

I ended up going to dinner with the entire Reason crew, which included, at the time Dave Weigel, which is how we met.

Dave is now a national political correspondent for Slate Magazine (an online magazine).

Because of a piece Dave did about Jack Davis, I figured out that Dave was apparently hanging out in WNY. I got in touch with Dave and said, "You really need to come out to Batavia, the heartland of the district."

Late yesterday afternoon, I got a call from Dave. He was on his way to Rochester for yet another dreary campaign event but decided his limited amount of time might be better spent in Batavia.

I called Bill Kauffman, Elba resident, nationally known political/history author and former Reason editor, and it was agreed we'd all meet at O'Lacy's (I would have loved to have taken Dave around to more places and shown him more of the town (though I did show him our "urban renewal" project), but he was on a tight schedule.

Dave interviewed co-owner Kent Ewell, above. Below center is Bill Dougherty with Bill Kauffman.

That's a long way of saying -- yup, the eyes of the nation are on the NY-26.

And our goal is to get the people in Genesee County out to vote on May 24. Let's show the nation we care about who is elected to represent us.

It's a close special election, every vote counts, so vote.

If Genesee County leads the district in voter turn out, The Batavian will donate $100 to Genesee Justice.  

Other pledges made so far: 

Jeff Allen has offered to match it with $100 to Care-A-Van Ministries; Dan Jones has offered to match it with $26 dollars to Care-A-Van ministries and another $26 dollars to the USO; and Dave Olsen is offer a $25 matching donation for GJ plus donate $50 to The Loyola Recovery Foundation.

Lorie Longhany has pledged $26 to the Child Advocacy Center wing of Genesee Justice; Ricky G. Hale, a local plumber, has pledged $100 to Genesee Justice and challenged other business owners to step forward with pledges; JoAnne Rock has pledged $25 to Genesee Justice.

District Attorney Lawrence Friedman has pledged $1,000 -- with $500 going to the Genesee Justice Foundation and $500 going to Justice For Children GLOW Foundation. Any other members of the legal community like to step forward?

Ken Mistler pledged $100 for Volunteers for Animals.

County Clerk Don Read has pledged $100 for Crossroads House. 

In round numbers, we're up to $1,650 in donations. Who wants to step forward today and make it $2,000?

Late this afternoon, I returned to my office and no sooner had I sat down and put my fingers on the keyboard of my laptop then I hear a voice from downstairs, "Howard?"

You know, sometimes how you think you hear somebody calling your name but nobody is? This wasn't one of those times.

I walked over to the top of the stairs and Jim Lewis tells me his son, 10-year-old Nick, spotted me walking into the office and wanted to say hello.

So I invited the Lewis trio up to the office, and with a fan of The Batavian like Nick, well, I thought he should get his picture on The Batavian.

With Nick and Jim is Adrianna, 8. Both Nick and Adrianna are students at John Kennedy.

In a special election, voter turnout is usually low.

That means, your vote counts more.

All eyes are on the NY-26 special election. Let's show the nation Genesee County cares about who is elected to represent us.

The Batavian has pledged $100 to the Genesee Justice Foundation if Genesee County can lead all counties in the NY-26 in voter turnout. 

In response, several others have pledge donations to various charities:

Jeff Allen has offered to match it with $100 to Care-A-Van Ministries; Dan Jones has offered to match it with $26 dollars to Care-A-Van ministries and another $26 dollars to the USO; and Dave Olson is offer a $25 matching donation for GJ plus donate $50 to The Loyola Recovery Foundation.

New donation offers: Lorie Longhany has pledged $26 to the Child Advocacy Center wing of Genesee Justice; Ricky G. Hale, a local plumber, has pledged $100 to Genesee Justice and challenged other business owners to step forward with pledges.

We're now up to $423 in pledges for local charities.

Can we get it to $1,000? Who else wants to jump in? Leave a comment or email me at howard {at} thebatavian dot com (let me know if you don't want your name used).

Remember, this is about getting out the vote, not about who you're voting for. If you don't like any of the candidates, you can always just turn in a blank ballot. That sends a message, too.

UPDATE 9:22 a.m.: District Attorney Lawrence Friedman has pledged $1,000 -- with $500 going to the Genesee Justice Foundation and $500 going to Justice For Children GLOW Foundation. Any other members of the legal community like to step forward?

UPDATE 10:15 a.m.: Ken Mistler just pledged $100 for Volunteers for Animals.

UPDATE 10:40 a.m.: County Clerk Don Read has pledged $100 for Crossroads House. That puts us up to $1,623. Any others?

Special elections are normally sleepy little affairs where turn out is low and hardly anybody outside of the district really cares who wins.

The NY-26 special election is getting national attention.

Let's show the country that Genesee County cares about who is elected to represent us.

Regardless of who you support, be sure to vote next Tuesday.

If Genesee County can achieve the highest voter turnout as a percentage of registered voters of any county in the 26th district, The Batavian will donate $100 to the Genesee Justice Foundation.

If others would like to sign on to the voter challenge pledge to benefit Genesee Justice, or the charity of your choice, send me an e-mail (address in the footer of this Web page) or leave a comment.

Remember, it's not important who you vote for. It's important that you vote. If you want to abstain, at least turn in a blank ballot.

If you happened to scroll to the bottom of the home page within the past few days, you might noticed the little emblem to the left showing up there.

A couple of months ago, myself and a couple of other local site owners started a Facebook group where we could discuss business and content issues among ourselves -- an industry group, if you will. Up until then, there really was no central location for independent local site owners to gather.

One of the members, Debbie Galant, co-owner of Baristanet, based in New Jersey, and one of very first local, online-only news sites, mentioned she owned this domain name: authenticallylocal.com and shouldn't we use it to promote not only local ownership of news sites, but local ownership of businesses in general.

For launch, 30 local news sites, including The Batavian, signed on to the Authentically Local campaign.

Regular readers know how heartily we push the idea of shopping first at locally owned businesses. When you shop local, more of your money stays in your local community were it can do the most good, and you're helping your friends and relatives enjoy a better quality of life.

Well, it turns out, I'm not the only local news site owner who thinks that way.

The difference for The Batavian is that so far we haven't faced the intense competition some of my colleagues are dealing with from well-funded national chains. For them, Authentically Local is a chance to remind readers and advertisers that with their sites, advertising dollars stay in the community, and that the owners are partners as well as neighbors.

These are values Billie and I share, but it's a critical message for the sites facing competition from the "Walmarts of the news industry," as Galant has put it.

Locally owned businesses in Genesee County are welcome to add the badge to their own Web sites.

Sorry for the lack of posts today.  

This morning after covering something in Le Roy (will post tonight or tomorrow), I realized that if I went back to the office and started posting I'd get stuck in the office all day. I had very important business matters to attend to today, so I decided I just had to make that a priority and make sure that work was done.

Now, I'll start posting.

We've added a new section to the site: "Milestones."

It's a place were you can post those important events in your life or the lives of friends and relatives, such as births, engagements, weddings, graduations, dean's list, military service, promotions, etc.

To post to "Milestones" you must be registered and logged in. Once logged in, go to the "Create Content" link and then click on "Blog Entry." Tag your post "milestones" and once it's saved it will automatically show up in that section.

Local businesses can now use The Batavian to help promote their social media marketing efforts.

Glance down the right side rail of local ads and you'll find two boxes, one with links to the Facebook pages of local businesses and another to promote the Twitter feeds of local businesses.

Social media is becoming a powerful tool for small businesses to connect with customers and one of our primary goals at The Batavian is to help local businesses use the Internet intelligently.

Besides offering the best online advertising program in the region, working with local businesses in their social media efforts helps us further that goal.

If your business already has a presence on Facebook or Twitter, call Howard Owens at 260-6970 to find out how to get a link added to our Facebook and Twitter boxes. And if you haven't put your business on Facebook or Twitter yet, call us and we'll help you get started. We can even manage your social media efforts for your business.

Billie and I wish to thank the Genesee County community for embracing us and embracing The Batavian.

It's been two years since we took over ownership of this news Web site. We've come a long way in two years and continue to love what we're doing and we love living in Genesee County.

Thank you to the readers and the businesses who support us.

For sake of comparison, when we took over, The Batavian had three sponsors. Today we have 96. In February 2009, the site was visited nearly 78,000 times and served 198,000 page views (at the time, both record numbers). In February 2011, we will have 260,000 visits and close to 470,000 page views.

And we continue to grow, and that's all thanks to you.

Below are January's most viewed posts, and since I never posted December's most viewed posts either, those are listed below.

January's most viewed posts:

• Suzanne Corona accused of shoplifting from Batavia florist
• Bank robbery reported in Corfu, by Billie Owens
• Man in maroon sedan exposes himself at coffee stand, by Billie Owens
• Bail and hearing set for man accused of rape
• State report blasts compensation practices of GCEDC
• Pantless man making snow angels on South Main Street, by Billie Owens
• Le Roy man accused of luring child into making sexual video
• More Birth Certificate controversy, by Peter O'Brien
• Local entrepreneurs plan teen nightclub at former gym location on East Main
• GCEDC releases consultant's salary survey

December's most viewed posts:

• Police Beat: Teen charged with sexual misconduct for relations with younger teen
• Batavia Motel condemned, residents say they were given little notice to move
• Police Beat: Batavia man accused of imitating girl's father to get her released from school early
• Woman from Dansville stuck in the city, by Billie Owens
• Freezing man found in snow bank off Route 20, Bethany, by Billie Owens
• Dangerous Condition: Snowman built in the middle of the road
• Neighbors argue over Christmas decorations in Darien Center, by Billie Owens
• Two-story house fire on Route 20 in Alexander, by Billie Owens
• Today's Poll: Should gays be allowed to serve openly in the military?

Today was a significant day in the growth of The Batavian -- our first two employees started work.

Granted, both are working on a limited part-time basis, but getting help for Billie and I will give us the latitude to continue growing the business. Over the past couple of months, it's been clear that there simply aren't enough hours in a week to get done all we need to get done, especially if we want to grow.

We've hired Brittany Baker and Ethan Thompson, two people with roots in Genesee County.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Dan Crofts, Gretel Kauffman and Jim Nigro continue on as correspondents and we very much appreciate their ongoing contributions.

Brittany Baker, Staff Writer: I first met Brittany more than 18 months ago when she introduced herself outside a restaurant where she worked. She wanted to write for The Batavian. We brought her on as a correspondent and both Billie and I were impressed with her work ethic and commitment to journalism.

We were exceptionally sorry a couple of months later to see her depart to the Batavia Daily News as a full-time staff writer, but wished her well. In December, I learned Brittany's position at the Daily was eliminated and since I knew I would be creating at least one part-time position in 2011, I immediately contacted her. Billie and I are quite proud that Brittany agreed to rejoin us.

Brittany is 24, born and raised in Genesee County and holds a bachelor's degree in broadcasting from Brockport and an associate's degree from GCC in communications and media arts. Her interests include video games, painting, photography and, of course, writing and reading. She's previously worked for, besides the Daily News, Terry Hills, Hot Shots, Delavan's, Bob Evans and has done some modeling.

She currently resides in Batavia.

Initially, Brittany will work four days per month, with an emphasis on covering the Town of Batavia. We'll add more work days as our revenue grows.

Ethan Thompson, Advertising Support: Ethan is another person who approached me in the early days of The Batavian with an interest in working for us. You may recognize his name. He has covered some football for us and done a couple of other video projects.

Ethan impressed me early on with his ambition and hard work, and when he applied for our advertising support position, I knew I at least had to talk with him about the job. We're very happy he decided to join our staff.

Ethan, 16, lives with his parents in Oakfield and is home-schooled -- he graduates this year. He runs his own media company, Just Passing Thru Productions and works with Ride to Recovery. 

Besides strong video production skills, Ethan can build Web sites in Word Press, knows his way around PhotoShop and other computer programs we use on the advertising side of the business.

One of the tasks I've been having a hard time keeping up with recently is "Deal of the Day," so Ethan's initial duties will be handling all of those responsibilities -- working four mornings a week to post the deals and send out the gift certificates. This should improve the entire process.

Ethan will take on additional responsibilities over the course of the year, all aimed at helping us serve local businesses better and generate more revenue so we can better serve both readers and advertisers.

Regular readers of The Batavian might recognize a couple of the pictures hanging on the wall here. As part of the decor in UMMC's new surgical wing, the hospital purchased 15 of my photos. Seven pictures are hanging in the waiting room and a barn shot is hanging across from the elevators. I'm not sure where the remaining seven photos are, but they're around somewhere.

On Friday night we started the migration to a new host server for The Batavian. We thought it would be a one-night job.

Our new IT support guy -- Nick, of Batavia -- put the site in "read only mode" and began transferring the database to the new server.

But we've published so much content over the past two and a half years years that the transfer ended up stretching well into Saturday.

Around 7 a.m., today, everything seemed set to flip the switch on the domain name and start pointing traffic to the new location.

Then we had some technical bug.

Things have seemed to settle down, but it will take a couple of days to get everything back to normal. Primarily, search isn't working yet and in posts pictures may not be appearing yet.

If you're seeing this post, you are seeing the new server. Everything should be fine.

There's no effective way to communicate this to people not seeing this post, but I'll put it out there anyway. If you're not seeing the new site, try restarting your computer. If that doesn't work, your Internet Service Provider just hasn't caught up with the change yet.  That can take some service providers as much as 48 hours to catch up.

Why the move: We anticipate a performance improvement. I feel like I'm already seeing it, though the server is still working pretty hard indexing the database and such. 

The simplest way to explain why we anticipate an improvement: When you have a site on a server that shares the server with other Web sites (a common type of commercial hosting environment), there is software that acts like a traffic cop and says, "OK, it's your turn to get this site, now it's your turn to go here, and now it's your turn to get this one."

This should happen very fast but, after we hired Nick to take over IT duties, he discovered that the type of software our previous host used had been shown to perform about four times slower than other options, so we decided in order to improve performance, we should change hosts.

Like I said, I feel like I'm already seeing better initial load times, so here's to hoping all of the frustration of the past 24 hours or so have been worth the change for all of us.

Here are the 15 most viewed stories for 2010:

• Notorious woman allegedly trashes buffet at South Beach, by Billie Owens
• Sex in the City: Batavia 'adultery' case getting wider media attention
• Suzanne Corona has yet to agree to carry 'I Stole At South Beach' signs
• Disturbed concert at Darien Lake: 13 arrests, 8 citations issued
• Police Beat: Allegedly no tire for 11 miles, no license since 1977, driver accused of DWI
• Brad Paisley concert results in eight arrests, 32 citations
• Three young people, including former Oakfield-Alabama football star, killed in accident
• County nursing home isn't up for sale, but the option is part of a proposed study
• Pontillo v. Pontillo opens window on finances of legendary family business
• Jury in Wendt case finds him guilty on all 11 counts
• Batavia man with lengthy criminal past sent to prison for five years
• Fire at house on East Main Street in Batavia, by Billie Owens
• The 25 highest paid public employees in Genesee County
• Photo Essay: An alleged DWI arrest
• Police Beat: Teen charged with sexual misconduct for relations with younger teen

As for traffic, the final numbers aren't in yet, of course, but we'll finish 2010 with 4,350,000 page views and more than 2,500,000 visits to the site.

One of the objections I often hear to the need for us all to "shop local first" is that "big boxes create jobs, too."

That's true. They may not be good paying jobs, or may lack benefits and job security may be a fiction, but they are jobs.

They're not jobs as good as those that have been displaced by the big boxes, particularly the manufacturing jobs driven off shore by demands for ever cheaper products, but they are jobs.

But the most important counter argument to "they create jobs, too," is that shopping local creates more jobs.

I recently came across this 2008 study commissioned by a shop local group in Michigan that found if just 10 percent of the consumers in their county made buying local a priority, it would result in an estimated $140 million in new economic activity, 1,600 new jobs, and $50 million in new wages.

That's because when you support a locally owned business, more of your money is staying in the community rather than being shipped off to some corporate headquarters in another state.

In a recession, in a Western New York economy battered by manufacturing job losses and a mismanaged Albany, shouldn't we all be doing our best to support the local economy first? If can't depend on each other, who can we depend on? There's no quick-fix coming from Albany or Washington. It's up to us.

So, whenever possible (and I realize for a number of reasons, it isn't always possible), shop local first. The more you do, the more it helps.

And a majority of the local businesses that need your support are sponsors of The Batavian, so when you patronize the businesses below, you're doing two good deeds.

Thank you, the readers, and to the sponsors for helping to make 2010 a great year for Billie and I.

3 D Wine & Spirits
A.D. Call and Sons
Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle
Alberty Drug Store
Alex's Place
Alli's Cones and Dogs
Baker's Frontier Kitchens
Barrett's Batavia Marine and Sporting Supplies
Batavia Downs
Beds 'n' Bones Pet Lodge
Blue Pearl Yoga
Bontrager's Auction
Bontrager's Real Estate
Carlson's Studio
CASA
Cedar St. Sales and Rentals
Center Street Smokehouse
Christiano Cellular
Classic Home Improvements
Clor's Meat Market
Crazy Cheap Cars
D&R Depot Restaurant
The Daily Grind
Dan's Tire
Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern
Dupont TV
Empire Tractor
The Enchanted Florist
Fastec Automotive
Ferrellgas
Foxprowl Collectibles
Genesee County Emergency Services
Genesee Dental Group
Genesee Graphics
Gilmartin
Habitat for Humanity
Hair Studio 25
Hardcor Audio
H.E. Turner & Co.
Holy Family School
I.R. Systems
The Insurance Center
J. Leonard McAndrew
John's Service Station
Ken Barrett
KleenAll
Kraving's Kafe
Lamb Family Medicine
Larry's Steakhouse
Lathan Tree Service
Lawley Genesee
Lewis and Lewis
Licata Chiropractic
Main St. Pizza Company
The Mane Attraction
The Manor House
Margarita's 
Mark Lewis Agency
Matteo & Mullen, CPA
Matty's Pizzeria
Max Pies
Michael Tomaszewski
Millennium Computer
Mobile Dog Grooming
Mr. Wine & Liquor
Next Level Fitness
O'Lacy's Irish Pub
Oliver's Candies
Optique
Pauly's Pizza
Pellegrino Auto Sales
Pheasants on the Flats
Present Tense Books
Pudgie's Lawn and Garden Center
P.W. Minor
Red Osier
Roxy's Music
Russell Marchese, DDS
Scratch Bakery
Select Collision
Settler's
Sloat Tire
South Beach
South Main Country Store
Stafford Trading Post
Southside Deli
Spray In Insulation
Terry Hills
T.F. Brown's
Topline Shirt Company
Valle Jewelers
West Main Wine & Spirits
WNY Blacktop Sealers
WNY Fireplace Outlet
Yasses Snow Removal

Most view posts for November

• Pedestrian killed in Pavilion, by Billie Owens
• Local Dem arrested after Republican legislator accuses him of harassing phone call
• Alexander couple accused of sex act in public view
• York Road fire victims victimized again by overnight thieves
• Apparently, Carl Paladino was in town
• DA's office moving forward with political harassment charge, but new judge needed first, by Billie Owens
• Chris Charvella Case: Putting a comment in context
• Fully involved house fire on York Road, Le Roy, by Billie Owens
• Owner who built log house loses home to fire in Le Roy
• Sex offenders dislocated by fire have registered new addresses

For November, The Batavian had 243,401 visits and 450,754 page views.

A story published by The Batavian in August 2009 received a second-place award from the International Association Firefighters in the organization's 2010 media awards.

The story, about the local firefighters' union annual MDA "Fill the Boot" campaign while ambulance layoffs loomed, was picked for nomination by City Fighterfighter Bob Fix and other members of the department.

The award category was for news stories on the Web. First place went to 1strespondernews.com.

A total of 245 entries from throughout the United States and Canada were judged in the competition.

Along with the recognition, the IAFF presented The Batavian with a $250 check.

This fine group of people are residents at 400 Towers. They came out today for a little lunchtime talk about The Batavian. They asked a few questions and talked about how they get their news. Bea McManis, in the back row with The Batavian sweatshirt on, organized the event and said very nice things about the site, its news and its readers.