A year ago to the day, I launched the North Haven News as a challenge to myself. With little or no expectations, I wanted to dive head-first into the online video blogging community with an experiment in hyper-local news broadcasting. I didn’t know if I would be able to consistently produce a bi-weekly video podcast, and I was even less confident that anyone would watch it.

Well, one year later, and I’m happy to say that I AM still producing new episodes and people ARE watching. With about 50 views per video (although I’ve seen a spike in traffic since the Citizen published that article about me), I feel as though I have a small but dedicated audience - and it’s because of those people that I feel an obligation to keep going…, at least for a little while longer. I guess I must be doing something right?

The timing is completely coincidental, but on this one-year anniversary, I’m thrilled to launch a completely redesigned website. I absolutely LOVE this new layout, which is geared specifically toward the video blog format. It’s very reminisent of hulu.com - another site I love (and if you’ve never heard of Hulu, you must check it out). I will always keep at least 3 videos in the top “Featured” section of the home page, and I’ve added a few new features like the events calendar and the local weather forecast.

So to all of you who are regular viewers of the show - thank you. Your support and feedback help keep me going. If you have any suggestions about ways to improve the show, I would love to hear from you. And hey…, if you know someone who might also like the show - please send them a quick email telling them about it and include a link to the site.

Thanks again.

Chris

By less than 100 votes, the people of North Haven have voted to approve the 2008-2009 budget.

The Canadian-based parent company of Quebecor World Northeast Graphics in North Haven just announced that they will be shutting the commercial printing plant’s doors on June 30, 2008. A total of 700 employees will be affected; local officials say that 350 of those work at the North Haven plant.

Hi, and welcome to my little experiment in hyper-local broadcasting. I want to bring to you - in video format - a quick recap of the news stories that are making headlines in our town. Using the community’s local newspapers and websites for content, my hope is to package a few of the more important and interesting stories in a short, 3-5 minute video podcast. I want to present the stories that are important to the members of our community that would not normally be covered by the local television stations.

This may be a monthly thing? This may be a weekly thing? Like I said, it’s an experiment…, I’ll just have to see how things go. I’m open to suggestions, so feel free to leave a comment.

Oh…, and if you know someone who wants to host this thing - have them drop me a line.