What was once meant to be a medium to unite the communities of Bristow has grown to become much more.
As Bristow Beat turns one-year-old, the husband and wife team of Jason and Stacy Shaw, who publish the local news site, looks back and reflects on opportunities and lessons learned.
"We initially saw the communities of Bristow as separated, without much communication between subdivisions," Publisher Jason Shaw said. "We wanted to provide a forum that would foster the pride of living in Bristow."
Furthermore, he said, there was a serious dearth of local news in western Prince William County.
"Before we launched, we were informed by community members that much of the local news reported by the existing county-wide media has a distinctly negative tone," he said. "There is so much good that people do locally, we wanted everyone to know about it."
The news site sought to spur community involvement, open dialog, and provide essential news to communities in Bristow and Nokesville and ultimately Gainesville and Haymarket as well.
Bristow Beat has experienced steady growth for the past year, building its audience organically; however, after covering several high-profile stories in Oct. and Nov. the website received a record numbers of visitors.
"Our daily numbers soared," he said. "After slow and steady growth for the first nine months, we were suddenly presented with opportunities that no business plan could have anticipated."
One of these opportunities was the ability to grow their audience following the announcement that the News and Messenger would cease publication by the end of the year.
"Our readers very actively allayed the fears of soon-to-be former News and Messenger readers that Bristow Beat could certainly provide them with the essential information they needed."
Despite the recent sale of InsideNova to a Leesburg-based company, the Shaws continue to stress the importance of living in the communities they serve.
"One of the advantages that we hold over our competition is that we report from the communities in which we live," he said. "We write about our neighbors."
Bristow Beat has partnered with a number of local individuals and plans to formalize its expansion throughout western Prince William County with the launch of the Gainesville Beat next week.
"With the absence of other Gainesville-specific news websites, we seek to become the primary source for online daily news in Gainesville," he said.
Bristow Beat prides itself on building connections in the communities and is openly appreciative of the trust and confidence that many residents have demonstrated in the local news organization.
"We take the tagline 'We‘re talking about you’ very seriously; we are committing to producing a product that will continue to serve the residents of western Prince William County,” he said.
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