Reporters never cease to amaze me

"The News and Observer" published an article about my web site, i9570.com today. Amazingly, the article bears little resemblance to the interview I had on the phone with the cute little reporterette. We had a long, pleasant conversation on the phone. I tried to steer things towards the site, not ME. We talked about the reason why I created the site, the content, the way I created it, and some of the influences that affected the site's creation.

The article spent most of the time talking about me in the beginning, then compared a start up web site like mine to a long standing and successful web site like 4042.com, and then proceeded to spend most of the time discussing the other web site. By the way, I was very complimentary of 4042.com in the interview, and have been for years.

Hopefully, my site will become the same sort of area icon as 4042.com. That would be great. They have been in existence for years, my site for less than two months. The first month or so was mostly for my learning, tweaking, playing, changing, adding, and getting things off the ground. I was a bit disappointed in the traffic comparison and the reporting of the failure of other sites. There may not be a real sustaining market for i9570.com. I don't know. Only time will tell. Either way, I found it a bit odd that a story that I supplied turned into a general discussion of regional web sites, contained few of the details of the interview, and spent pretty much no discussion of the site.

Some day, I will figure out reporters. Even though I took journalism classes, was in the media for years, and read a lot of news, I am often baffled by reporters. None the less, I am grateful for the exposure.

I have gotten a lot of positive feedback about the site so far. Word is slowly getting out. I do the site as a hobby during my spare time. I am not necessarily looking for a business, but rather a fun hobby in which I can learn and have personal enrichment.

The funny thing is that there is a thread on the 4042.com message board about how great it is that their site got mentioned in the article. You guys over there are welcome for the article genesis. Don't forget who got it started for you.