November 28, 2005

I read with interest the other day where one commentator suggested that we only have 6 or 8 contributors to our stories. That comment prompted me to have a look and see just what that number was, with a view to letting everyone in on that figure. As of November 24th, we had 471 contributors to our internet paper, making it a pretty broad base of Opinion from throughout BC.

I say BC because we have found that while the bulk of our readers (about 80%) come from this region, the balance of registered commentators is made up of people from all over the province. In addition, we have now had people accessing this site from 71 countries. We have come to believe that a lot of people who have lived here are scattered across the world and use this site as a means of keeping up with what’s going on back home. As a side bar we actually have 472 commentators, however we have removed “Mrs. Meisner’s” privileges.

Have we been making an impact? Well consider this; at the recent civic election forum you may remember the mainstream media would not acknowledge that Opinion 250 was even a part of the evening.

If you add to that the fact that when we were seeking advertising space, the only media that would take our adds were the “Wolf, 94 X and Shaw cable, and you can see why we teamed up with them in the civic election.

Have we been making our presence felt in the community? That decision is up to you. Opinion 250 is not about my opinion, or the opinion of this “paper” rather it is all about YOUR opinion, the view of the people who live in the 250 area code.

We will continue to strive to present what one commentator called a hard edged approach to the news of the region. We can guarantee you that you will not be spoon fed pablum but will receive the full meal deal when it comes to reporting.

Thanks to all of you who contribute. You set the stage for what stories we should be examining and it is much appreciated.

Thank you

Ben Meisner,
Editor