Thirteen years ago today, I was developing NewBernNow.com. Our country was in the midst of the great recession and local businesses and nonprofits were closing or on the brink of shuttering their doors.
The idea came to me after visiting with a downtown merchant. Her husband was ill, and she was devastated. She hugged me, crying, she told me that she didn’t know what to do as she couldn’t afford to advertise.
I was heartsick for her along with other businesses and nonprofits. Driving home, I decided to create a website, write about local service providers and merchants – for free. After months of research, New Bern Now (NBN) was launched in April 2009.
Fast forward to today and our community is in a similar situation.
We are hitting the reset button, but this time, we have an advantage – NBN has approx. 9,000 pages/posts, making it a hyperlocal search engine for New Bern and surrounding towns.
The “everything is free” concept is not a business model so we’re reevaluating our practices.
NBN is an independent, veteran-owned small business. As a media company we will continue to write stories and publish public service announcements at no cost. If that changes, we will label anything with “Sponsored Content.”
We offer multimedia services and products that include an online news and information website, print and digital magazine, social media, radio, podcasts, videocasts, to the daily news email. If you’re looking for ways to reach a local audience, we can help you.
Consider joining us as a citizen journalist, contributing writer, or member of the Podsquad.
We will add reporting on local government and other topics to what we currently publish.
We are learning new systems and equipment which takes time, so we will be on a modified schedule for the next week or so.
We really appreciate everyone who has subscribed to NewBernNow.com on a monthly basis. Special thanks to our advertisers! Your support is vital to our success.
Please let me know if you have any questions by sending an email.
By Wendy Card