March 28, 2001 — While being named St. Thomas Rotary IIs Person of the Year is news in the Virgin Islands, one wouldnt typically expect it to be reported beyond the territorys shores.
However, every media professional across the nation who subscribes to Editor & Publisher, the weekly news magazine of the newspaper industry, can read all about it in the March 28 issue. E&P writer Steve Outing, whose focus is the online news industry, has devoted his column to the V.I. Source newspapers and their founder/publisher, Shaun A. Pennington, noting, among other things, that she was this years Rotary honoree.
Anyone who doesnt subscribe to the publication but has Internet access also can see Outings column at www.editorandpublisher.com.
He writes that "the local media scene is dominated by" the Innovative companies of Jeffrey Prosser, noting that Prossers holdings include The V.I. Daily News, both of the territorys cable television companies, its local telephone company and banks. Then, stating that the businessman is not without his critics in the community, the columnist adds, "Prossers power may be part of the reason that Shaun Pennington, an independent Internet news publisher, was named the Person of the Year by the Rotary Club II of St. Thomas recently."
Pennington was not about to comment on that speculation. However, she said she is glad Outing cited some information about the readership level of the Source and about its host platform, or server, Florida-based Onepaper.com.
The column reports that the Source sites "are currently generating between 350,000 and 400,000 pageviews per month" in a territory with a population of about 110,000. "Its estimated that more than one-quarter of the islands residents have dial-up Internet access," Outing writes, with broadband wireless service also available. He points out that readership includes Virgin Islanders living off-island, tourists and federal government officials.
Virtually every daily and weekly newspaper editor and/or publisher in the nation considers E&P essential reading to keep up with whats going on in the industry.
According to Pennington, this "absolutely is" the first time the Source has gotten national media attention, as far as she knows. "Im hoping it will bring new visitors to the site and, through that, to the Virgin Islands," she said. "But also, since he mentioned Onepaper.com, and since his column reaches publishers, it may bring more people to the Onepaper template, so that it reaches more publishers like me."
What the server offers, she said, "is a way for small operations, because theres little overhead involved, to publish news and information about their communities separate and apart from the huge news organizations that own most of the daily newspapers in the country today."
Outing writes that the Source papers have reported on stories ignored by the Daily News, such as AT&T of the V.I. suing the former V.I. Telephone Corp. (now Innovative Telephone) for $3.8 million over alleged non-payments. He notes that the Source staff in addition to Pennington consists of freelance and volunteer writers and editors, "many of whom have lived on the islands for much of their lives."
While many print newspapers have added online editions, Outing states that the Source coverage is "online only, with no print version as the only daily alternative to news produced by Prossers island media empire." He then mistakenly describes The Avis as a weekly paper.
"Im sorry about that error," Pennington said. "The Avis is by far the oldest daily newspaper in the territory, has always been locally owned, and is another valid alternative voice for readers."
Outing also describes the St. John Tradewinds as a weekly, although the paper is published semi-weekly during the "non-season" half of the year.
The E&P columnist became aware of the Source just a few weeks ago. He reported in his March 14 column that he had been looking for online information about the Virgin Islands. This led to a conversation between him and Pennington and his decision to devote his current column to the Source papers.
According to Pennington, "Whats happened in the Virgin Islands isnt unusual. Its what has been happening throughout the publishing world in the last five years. Whats nice is the national attention now on what weve been able to do here. Despite what seems to be a down-trend in dot.com businesses, Internet publishing is here to stay."