THIS ARTICLE IS COMMENTARY AND PUBLISHED IN OUR EDITORIAL SECTION.
PVN marks 5th anniversary, thanks 859,000 users for their support
By Randy Arrington, publisher
Sometimes you get so caught up in the momentum of the moment that you forget to stop and appreciate where you are and how you got there.
Last month, on Feb. 3, PVN quietly marked its fifth anniversary. Page Valley News has reached more than 859,000 users during that time and logged more than 3.3 million page views. That doesn’t include another 20,311 views and 154,709 impressions on YouTube totaling more than 1,675 hours of watch time since the fall of 2023.
PVN wishes to thank those who have supported our efforts to provide local stories and local news. We acknowledge that there have been stories that we have missed; we also note, however, that we have expanded and improved our coverage since our start, and we pledge to keep improving our efforts to keep the community informed in the years ahead.
A busy winter sports season just reached an end, with local performers reaching the state tournament in basketball, wrestling and indoor track. PVN regrets that some of those stories were not reported in a timely fashion, but that often happens late in a sports season when multiple playoffs overlap with postseason accolade announcements across several sports within a short time period. We pledge to do better moving forward, as we continue to offer the best up-to-date sports coverage available for local teams in the Page Valley.
We will soon dig into the 2025 ballot to see who is running this year for several key positions on both the board of supervisors and the school board. In recent years, PVN has been the only local news outlet to cover local politics and local races in Page County through candidate Q&As, one-on-one video interviews, and recorded candidate forums to allow voters the opportunity to learn about who’s on the ballot. PVN will continue to fill that role.
Our expanded online presence on YouTube is growing an audience, with more than 200 subscribers to our YouTube channel. “Page Valley Livin'” has expanded its topics and list of guests to range from the county’s three mayors to a local woman who clinically died for nearly 30 seconds and lived to write a book about it (coming up soon). PVN’s weekly YouTube show has honored the life of Officer “Nic” Winum and visited various festivals and events; we’ve stood among the bells in the Singing Tower and filmed the blueish-green waters of Yager Spring. We will continue to offer this weekly glimpse into the people, places and issues of the Page Valley.
Last summer, PVN began offering local government agencies and others needing to publish Public Notices the opportunity to save money and reach a larger audience. Many local attorneys and government bodies have taken advantage of the new state law that now allows the publication of such legal notices to be published with online news sites, rather than be mandated to print-only venues such as the newspaper. PVN was at the forefront of this battle in Richmond, and ultimately published the first Public Notice in Virginia under the new statute in July (believed to be the first of its kind in the country). PVN believes that this collaborative effort between online publishers in the commonwealth and the Virginia Press Association will pave the way for the future of community journalism across the U.S.
Page Valley News continues to look for more ways to expand and improve both the quantity and quality of its coverage across all platforms, including its more than 8,300 followers on Facebook. We are still not where we want to be in those terms, but we have made some progress, as noted above. We are hoping this is the year that we may begin to add some additional writers to our bylines. PVN has been on the verge of this move for a while and is now beginning to reach a financial point where we’re seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Whether we reach this milestone will depend on the support of local business and local readers — but that is where we have our sites set.
Those helping create all of the informational platforms that Page Valley News produces, fully realize the weight and importance of what we attempt to do each day. With the recent announcement of the Page News and Courier office closure, the gravity of the need for local news — and the potential in rural areas for a “news desert” to form in the absence of local news — is greater now than at any point in the modern era. The PNC has served Page County since 1867, two years after the Civil War ended. It reached a height of nearly 9,000 weekly circulation more than 15 years ago, with a full- and part-time staff of about 15. Today, there are only about 500 subscribers left in the county, served by a staff of two.
Closing the doors of the local newspaper office is simply a sign of the times — not just remote work lifestyles — but the absolute upheaval of the newspaper industry, and the big shift in media from print to digital. It was bound to happen at some point.
So, PVN moves forward, striving to improve local news coverage on all platforms, hoping to gain new readers and explore new topics, and looking forward to another five years of growth and beyond. We hope you will chose to grow with us along the journey.
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RECENT EDITORIALS
If running for public office, then get on the ballot…no write-ins, please
Randy you have provided a valuable news source. You have every right to be proud of your accomplishment. You are an asset to the community. Thank you for your dedication to Page County. Great job.
Thank you Randy for all your hard work and efforts. You provide a much needed service to all your readers. You are appreciated!