News Leader News for November 20, 2007
NEWS LEADER EXPANDS SERVICE
Effective immediately Princeton's only locally owned and operated weekly newspaper has expanded it's Internet presence.
"It's been something I've been looking at for the past year," says Similkameen News Leader Owner/Publisher George Elliott.
"The website (www.thenewsleader.ca) took a huge jump in visitor numbers in the past six months reaching an average of 900 plus unique visitors per day.
Basically what that means is on any given day there's somewhere between 700 and 1,100 different visitors to our website. Our stats show that the majority of them are from the United States and they are looking over just about anything on our website."
The original News Leader website was built by Bill Quinlan of Q-Tech Industries and was a single page of information related to the newspaper.
The current website, built three years ago by Bryan Smith of Keremeos Web Services, includes weekly news, sports, court news, editorials, online classified ads, weather and road conditions plus archive files all of which are updated regularly.
"Between what Bill and then Bryan has done for us I've come to understand the importance of a strong Internet presence. With the numbers we've been getting at our site I determined we had to add some more services to enhance the News Leader website experience."
Elliott says he found what he considers a perfect fit through two different programs.
"First off we have added an online shopping site where you visit www.bengelonlinestore.com and you can access brand name sites such as e-bay, amazon.com, Home Depot and Wal-Mart, with more to come. The second part is a home-based business program offered through the Global Cash Flow Network located at www.bengelonlinebusiness.com, which teaches the basics of starting your own business. So we're adding some shopping and a little education."
While many News Leader readers may take advantage of both sites, especially the online store leading into Christmas, Elliott says the programs are being marketed outside the Similkameen Valley.
"We are currently advertising both the online store site and the home-based business site in a variety of internet formats in various locations around the world with a particular target of the United States."
Elliott says both sites will have more elements added to them within the next month as he continues to explore options available to him.
"It's a huge market we are already reaching, so a lot of the hard work is done. Traffic is what makes or breaks a website and we already have the traffic, now we need to start directing where the traffic will go and what we will give the traffic to do as it passes through. The online store and online home-based business programs will enhance what we are already offering."
Bengel Publishing Inc. is the name of Elliott's company, which produces the Similkameen News Leader, the Ghost Towns and Princeton Posse DVD projects and now the Bengel Online Store and Bengel Online Business projects.
"I always imagined we'd have more than one product available when I formed Bengel in December 2003, I wasn't sure how long it would take to increase our catalogue as I didn't want to expand too quickly."
In addition to the recent expansion, Elliott is currently training to become a Certified Media Placement Specialist.
PXA ELECTS 2008 BOARD
John Bey was returned as President of Princeton Exhibition Association at the November 13 annual general meeting. Carol Ruoss is Vice-President, with Stan Thompson, Terry Inglis, Ernie Willis and Eric Gregson serving as two year Directors, and Dene Thomas, Sandy Gabor and Linda Allison elected as one year Directors.
The Board met earlier in the month with ATV-BC representatives planning a jamboree for June 19, 20, 21 and 22.
They reviewed what the ATV group wanted, which includes on-site camping, garbage services, concession meals, a refreshment area, horseshoe pits, mud pit, shuttle service to town, flaggers for a parade (if it can be okayed), road maps and a dunk tank.
The PXA quoted $6,600 and is waiting for a response.
The Town of Princeton granted $1,500 for the upgrade of the facades at the grounds.
More horses are coming for winter training, bringing the number of horses to 30 on the grounds.
Plans are underway, if the weather holds, to put a chain link fence around the track. The rest of the fairgrounds, buildings and water systems, are winterized.
Racing Days has proposed Friday, June 27 as horse racing day next year.
The PXA will recess until February 12, 2008, when they will meet again at Town Hall.
In the meantime, the executive will conduct such business as required.
DISTRICT WORKS TO CUT DROPOUTS
Superintendents, administrators, trustees and teachers from our region are working at plans for methods of cutting down the number of students who do not graduate.
The local group will focus on what works.
Studies have shown that students in Grade 6 who fail mathematics or English are 75 percent more likely to drop out than other students.
Part of the plan will be to identify those students at risk, along with identifying students at risk for other reasons.
The matter was discussed at the November 14th regular meeting of School District 58 Trustees.
BOARD OBJECTS TO MINISTER'S LETTER
The Minister of Education sent out a form letter to all newspapers regarding student enrollment and expressing the idea that school district personnel were "confused" about student enrollment.
Board Chair Gordon Comeau made it clear there was no confusion on the part of the school districts, and further stated the Board had made it clear to the Minister that trustees objected to the Minister having chosen to write letters to the newspapers to inform the public there was some confusion.
