e-KNOW Editorial / By Ian Cobb

On a warm, July 6 morning in 2011, East Kootenay News Online Weekly (e-KNOW) quietly blinked alive.

A patchwork WordPress digital seas entity aiming to inform, enlighten, entertain and engage the East Kootenay had no readers – no subscribers.

We bobbed and floated in the digital sea for weeks trying to catch peoples’ eyes and enjoyed two regular readers, Carrie’s Mom Velma and her best friend Patty.

We walked around Cranbrook dropping off cards and brochures and then did the same thing across the entire region. We attended every event we could and around the start of 2012, readership began to explode.

We began to experience readership numbers of the like we never anticipated or dreamed about, and thanks to coverage of some major news events, including the great Baker Street fire in April and windstorm in July 2012, as well as flooding in Wasa, Kimberley, Columbia Valley and the Elk Valley in 2012 and 2013, e-KNOW began to catch the eye of the curious in the East Kootenay and beyond – way beyond in many instances.

It’s been a long, steady climb the past 11 years, going from zero page views to about 6.5 million a year; and zero subscribers to 30,139 subscribers, over six different social delivery routes (Facebook, weekly e-mail newsletter Instagram, Twitter, One Signal and Linked-In).

To all our readers: thank you for stopping by. We hope we bring some important information to you to help you navigate life in this mountain paradise called East Kootenay, located within the Ktunaxa Nation.

Building this beast has been mesmerizing, captivating, exhausting and ultimately rewarding, with Chris Botterill and his Genex Marketing team capably keeping e-KNOW in tip-top shape. If Carrie and I man the helm of e-KNOW, Chris is Mr. Scott in the engine room, keeping the Dilithium crystals polished and impulse engine humming.

It is enormously safe to say we’d have been screwed if Chris didn’t come along in 2012.

We’ve also been blessed to have a large variety of talented writers and photographers working with us over the years, including some original guards, such as book reviewer Derryll White, op-ed columnist Gerry (ya either love him or hate him) Warner, Stephanie Stevens and always at the library Mike Selby.

Nowell Berg has been a stalwart covering Kimberley council and Erin Knutson has been our Swiss Army knife – covering councils and events around the region.

We thank Chad St. Pierre, Tammy Oates, Bob Ede and Chris Newel for their photographic and reporting contributions, as well as periodic contributors and sources who help keep us on top of things as best as we can.

And certainly not lastly, we thank our advertising supporters whose contributions allow us to bring our weekly online community newspaper to you on a daily basis.

The past decade has been a helluva ride; from zero to 6.5 million. Much history has passed by – with this editorial/post appearing as the 31,700^th item on e-KNOW.

It is mind blowing to us how fast time has gone and how large this beast has grown.

What will the next decade bring? Can’t wait to find out and stay tuned!

Thanks for reading.

e-KNOW file photos

Ian Cobb and Carrie Schafer/e-KNOW owners

Article Share