This month marks the 17th Anniversary of Golden Today. Thank you to Tracy Evanko, who’s been maintaining the calendar and business pages for most of that time. Thanks to the talented photographers who supply the delightful Golden Eye Candy. Thanks to the readers, who keep me informed and entertained with their correspondence and running commentary. And a BIG thank you to the sponsors and contributors who make it all possible.
I began the website and email with the desire to help Golden’s cultural organizations. In 2007, there was no single, reliable place to help spread the word about their events, so I created this one. At that time, Golden business was still struggling a bit, so I began promoting businesses as well.
Eventually I began paying more attention to city government. It seemed that citizens never learned about changes until it was too late to provide input. For that reason, I began writing detailed previews of upcoming meetings.
In 2020, in an effort to keep people entertained during the pandemic shutdown, I began writing daily articles about Golden History, Frankly, I hadn’t intended to keep it up for four years, but here I am.
Obsessively-local news isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it seems to appeal to my audience. I often hear that Golden people start their day by reading “What’s Happening in Golden?” I can further state that my audience is either insomniac or super-early risers. On average, about 950 people read it on any given day—most of them before 7AM. A surprising number open it the minute it goes out, at 3AM.
My current project, in addition to writing the daily email, is building a new GoldenToday.com website. I want to improve my local news coverage, and my current site, which I built in 2011, is crumbling with age.
At any rate, tomorrow I’ll start my 18th year of telling you What’s Happening in Golden!
Thanks for reading.
Barb
Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
