South West Sports News 10
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 01 April 2018 10:10
- Last Updated on Friday, 30 September 2022 07:11
- Published on Sunday, 01 April 2018 10:10
South West Sports News was 10 years old on April 1, 2018 kicking off an exciting year of new goals.
If you’re waiting for the April Fool punchline there isn’t one… apart from the fact we’ve been punching above our weight since 2008.
The original purpose of South West Sports News was to promote “local sport” online to a global audience via the worldwide web.
It started as a rossreid seed, planted in a furrowed brow in winter 2007.
Corporate-owned newspapers continued to concentrate on what made money rather than what mattered to their readers.
This resulted in throwing as much money as they could at an online presence and relying on hits to drive sports pages rather than sports editors and/or sports reporters, teams and fans. It was a knockout punch, thrown at an industry which gave me purpose.
“I get knocked down but I get up again you’re never going to keep me down” Tubthumping, Chumbawumba 1997
Floored I had an epiphany while in the pub listening to hockey and rugby-playing friends bemoan the fact their community clubs were getting less and less column inches in the local newspapers they were buying/supporting.
As a former regional sports editor what if I started a website that pro-actively attracted readers?
If it made money – eventually, surely - that would supplement my declining income as a freelance journalist.
I was up off the canvas.
I registered southwestsportsnews.com and the rest is a wild west rollerball and history.
For months I badgered creative friends to help in any way they could while bending the ears of regular contacts at local community sports clubs with how I was going to launch a “new” website and revolutionise the way we would promote their sports. I would put sport on the front page, every page, every day!
Little did I know on the other side of the Atlantic four Americans were about to launch an online social networking service that would enable me to deliver.
With access to twitter South West Sports News’ organic growth increased rapidly.
SWSN continues to develop, aided by a passionate team willing to freely donate their time and skills so you can equally freely visit the site whenever you wish as long as you have online access.
These days I prefer to call South West Sports News a community hub.
Thanks to social media we can engage with sportspeople across our region and – of course – the globe.
Little did I realise a regional community sports hub kicked off by a foolhardy freelance on April 1, 2008 would still be kicking around 10 years later… established and well positioned to kick-on for another decade.
Geddon! Game on!
If you enjoy South West Sports News please let us know via twitter attaching the #SWSN10 hashtag
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