Feel free to contact us via email or message us on our Facebook page and we can answer any questions not covered in this list. We will update this list as time goes on.
1.) Isn’t the Ohio County Monitor just a Facebook page?
2.) Why is the Ohio County Monitor selling subscriptions?
3.) Why should I subscribe to the Ohio County Monitor?
4.) I’m not a subscriber, can I still receive your daily newsletter?
5.) When is OCMonitor.com updated?
6.) Can I subscribe to OCMonitor.com offline with a check?
7.) How do I add an OCMonitor.com shortcut icon on my phone?
8.) Do I need a subscription to read everything on OCMonitor.com?
1.) Isn’t the Ohio County Monitor just a Facebook page?
We’ve found this to be a very common misconception. The Ohio County Monitor is an online news website providing news for Ohio County seven days a week, 365 a days a year.
We are not affiliated with any other news organization, media outlet, newspaper, or radio station.
Few, if any, news organizations post entire stories on Facebook and social media. When you click or tap on a link to a news story or obituary on the Ohio County Monitor Facebook or Twitter page, you aren’t reading the story on Facebook or Twitter. The link may load in your social media app’s light web browser, but you are still visiting OCMonitor.com.
If you are reading these words, you are reading them on OCMonitor.com, not Facebook, not Twitter, or any other social media site or app.
News organizations post their stories on social media because this is where many people spend their time and get their news. In fact, a vast majority of OCMonitor.com readers come directly from Facebook and Twitter by clicking links we share on our social media pages. Social media is simply a convenient way to reach readers because so many people are on social media sites every day.
2.) Why is the Ohio County Monitor selling subscriptions?
We are no different from any other journalists at any other news organization. We are in the office every day during the week, we attend public meetings, take photos, shoot video, record audio and edit all these things before posting our stories on this website. Which has its own expenses.
Every community is different, but for whatever reason, advertising wouldn’t support the Ohio County Monitor despite nearly 2 million visits and 3.7 million page views during that time. We certainly appreciated the businesses that did advertise and, as business owners ourselves, we know money can be tight for businesses that couldn’t advertise with us.
Selling subscriptions means smaller staff, less expenses, and less worry about changes in online advertising, and ad-blocking, technology.
Facebook and Google already make up 85 percent of all online advertising revenue, we even use Facebook Ads. Plus, Apple and Google recently announced they are going to make ad blocking a default feature on their web browsers as soon as next year.
We do realize selling online subscriptions is new, especially for a rural area, and we don’t expect everyone to subscribe. However, we believe this is the future of journalism and especially rural journalism. In fact, we have met and consulted with a few academics and industry professionals who are observing how subscriptions work out in Ohio County, being a rural community, and what impact it could have for the journalism industry.
More importantly, we love bringing Ohio County daily news, but it is our work and just like you, our readers, we believe our time and effort is worth something.
3.) Why should I subscribe to the Ohio County Monitor?
Example situation which has occurred: When the city of Hartford instituted its occupational tax, the Ohio County Monitor was the only news organization to report on it before it happened. Our readers then had an opportunity to attend the public hearing, ask questions, and voice their opinions. If not for our reports, many people working in Hartford would have never known it had happened until they asked why their paychecks were a little lighter.
We hope people subscribe because they appreciate the service we provide and would like to support our efforts in daily coverage of our community. Purchasing a subscription also helps us to add new features to the site and we have some big ideas for the future.
A monthly subscription to OCMonitor.com costs about 17 cents per day and even less if longer subscriptions are purchased.
Also, when you buy a subscription, you receive our daily email newsletter of every headline and obituary posted in the last 24 hours, so you’ll never miss a story. Social media sites, like Facebook, purposely do not show links to everyone who likes a Facebook page. The only way a reader can see every link we share on Facebook is to go to our page and set up to receive a notification every time we post a link.
4.) I’m not a subscriber, can I still receive your daily newsletter?
Not yet, but we are in the process of setting up an online form where non-subscribers can receive the newsletters.
5.) When is OCMonitor.com updated?
We post stories to OCMonitor.com throughout the day starting around 5 a.m. and any time news breaks.
6.) Can I subscribe to OCMonitor.com offline with a check?
Yes, we can set up your subscription if you would like to pay by check instead of online with a credit card. Click here for instructions.
7.) How do I add an OCMonitor.com shortcut icon on my phone?
For iPhone, go to OCMonitor.com in your Safari browser. Tap on the Share button at the bottom of the screen. Tap Add to Home Screen. You can then edit the name of the icon, press Add in the top right corner.
For Android, go to OCMonitor.com in your Internet browser. Tap the right hand side of your device to show the settings, tap on Add shortcut to Home Screen.
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8.) Do I need a subscription to read everything on OCMonitor.com?
Obituaries, stories concerning public safety information, and our community calendar are always free to view.
Public safety stories are boil water advisories, missing persons, weather warnings, etc.