Leonard Witt
Not long ago I was bragging here about how our Juvenile Justice Information Exchange hit the 9,000 unique visitors a month mark. I thought that was really great for a niche journalism site covering juvenile justice issues. Now I am happy to report that by the end of March we hit the 12,000 monthly unique mark. Then last week it was 13,000 and this week it is 14,000 with more than 36,000 monthly page views; we are on a roll.
No other entity online or offline convenes 14,000 parents, lawyers, policymakers, teens, system professions, judges and everyday citizens interested in juvenile justice. Obviously our numbers say that we are filling a void. Although we are still Georgia centric, we have audience and contributors coast to coast. For example, Benjamin Chambers a frequent opinion piece contributor from Reclaiming Futures is based in Oregon.
Credit for this growing audience goes to our editor John Fleming, who officially moved from interim to
John Fleming
permanent editor this month, and to reporter Chandra Thomas, interns Ryan Schill and Amie Flanagan and the host of experts and citizen opinion writers. Behind the scenes Carole Arnold, Noah Echols, Clay Duda and Pete Colbenson are busy getting the word out about JJIE.org via traditional and online marketing and social media sites. You can read more about all of them here.
Of course, we are nothing without you as an involved member of this juvenile justice community of readers, commentators and supporters. We have about 400 friends who like us on Facebook and as many people who have signed up for our regular newsletter. Please join them.
Finally, thanks has to go to Ruth Ann Harnisch and the Harnisch Foundation, whose support has allowed us to prove that important public service journalism centered on complex issues like juvenile justice can build and maintain an audience.