Oceanside CA– One year ago we published our first story and began this little upstart called OsideNews. We have had over 100,000 visits to the site from people all across the globe. Our numbers have grown exponentially over the past quarter and I cannot thank everyone enough for your support.
This would not have been possible without you. In particular, I would like to thank my Dad, Don Marcotte, my wife, Shelly and my daughter, who seems to have a nose for news, Tanessa. Without those three, OsideNews wouldn’t have made it through the first few months. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a fourth “person,” Sundae. She was always by side, I could always bend her ear and she never complained. My trusted friend of almost thirteen years passed away in January and I still miss my little girl. She may have been a Chocolate Lab on the outside but she was never treated as anything less than another daughter in the family and I miss her dearly.
This has been a volunteer effort by everyone involved. We began with a shoestring budget and now… well, we still have shoestrings. Thank you, Ruarri Serpa, for your time and efforts covering civic matters. you do great work. Thank you Geoff Mountain for taking time out to do your Food and Brew reviews and thank you Tom Morrow your columns, experience and wisdom are a great asset and greatly appreciated. There are many others but for fear of accidentally leaving someone out I will just say thank you to all of you.
Things are going to get real exciting around here. Two huge new projects in downtown Oceanside (more on this story soon), the wrangling over El Carazon, changes at the harbor, water restrictions around the corner and elections. It will be an interesting second year. Without revealing plans for the future, our coverage of North County will be expanding. We will continue to strive to make this a better publication. I’m sure the growing pains will hit OsideNews like they are going to hit downtown but in the end, hopefully, everything is better for it.
Thank you again, everyone, for your support. As always your comments, story ideas and news leads are welcome.
~Steve