1808Delaware collects and tells the stories of Delaware County and Delaware Countians each and every day, and like no other place on the web.
All across America, the media landscape is changing at a furious pace.
Traditional news operations, particularly those that publish print newspapers, have had to adapt to new ways in which “readers” consume information. As a result, traditional newsrooms have shrunk as they experience circulation drops and falling revenues.
In response to these changes, a variety of new types of media have been springing up in some surprising places. Many of these are housed in America’s urban centers. Some of the most successful, however, have arrived in small to mid-sized cities. These include operations that are not tied to so-called “legacy” products (existing newspapers or television stations) but instead are independent and exclusively online.
Almost all of these new sites are still repeating the approach of traditional newspapers – exclusively publishing their own material via old methods and then competing against others who do the same. It’s basically the same old approach in new packaging.
What makes little sense for modern news consumers, who have access to a wide variety of sources, literally at their fingertips. It’s hard to stay on top of it all. Social media like Facebook attempt to bring these sources together, however if a news feed is not accessed during the time a particular post makes its way down the page, a story can easily be missed. Independently checking each and every news site — the Delaware Gazette, ThisWeek News, WDLR, even the Columbus Dispatch and the city’s television stations — can be a time-consuming task. Add to the number of area residents on Twitter, and Instagram, and Pinterest, and Snapchat, and other sites and… well, you get the picture.
It seems to us that there’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be a way to emphasize local in the middle of all of this.
One innovative model has recently emerged which combines independent reporting, curated news, social media posts, and more. This approach was first attempted in a small to mid-sized community through another Total|Local Media site, 1812Blockhouse, in Mansfield and Richland County. 1812Blockhouse launched in September of 2016.
We are now bringing that energy and creativity to central Ohio through the very site you are looking at.
And, like 1812Blockhouse, we are using a significant year for the communities we serve in the site name. Both the city of Delaware and Delaware County were established in the year 1808.
We are one-of-a-kind, mobile-focused, social media-driven, passionately pro local, and ready to roll. Thank you for reading this, and we invite you to visit often.
