Progreso on pace to nearly double 2009 visitors and hits
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com
Progreso Weekly and Semanal continue to upgrade, bringing you, our reader, a better product as we continue to grow. With new columnists coming on board, a new young blogger out of Washington, D.C. with up to the minute developments out of the U.S. capital, Francisco Aruca interpreting the news three days a week with his Temas (or issues), as well as our first-rate Havana contributors setting the pace of Cuba news being reported, with timely, up to the minute coverage of last minute nuggets, our aim is to become the most important alternative source of news reporting and interpreting the news emanating from Havana, Miami, Washington D.C., and other places being affected by the synergy (or lack of) from these three political hot spots.
Half way through 2010, we’ve already surpassed the number of visitors that navigated our pages in 2009. As for hits and time spent reading our articles and columns, we’ve already matched the more than 20 million hits received in 2009. In fact, in July alone we received 4,020,384 hits – the most ever in a single month.
Our latest adventure is being undertaken by a young, 28-year-old blogger, Angelica Salazar, who will report on news coming out of Washington, D.C., with her Angelica’s Eyes on Washington blog. We see great potential in Angelica’s work for a number of reasons. One, of course, is information. Although young, Angelica has a decade worth of experience in activism and things dealing with the Washington crowd. The past few years she has spent living in D.C. and walking the halls of Congress on a daily basis. Her network of contacts and friends is extensive and includes actual Members of Congress and, as important, many of their staffers.
As a young person, we expect Angelica to lead us into this new world of social networks via the Internet – an important niche, news services have discovered in the past few years. Finally, with the experience and energy of an activist who has traveled and worked around the world, we see Angelica’s Eyes as another source of activism – a direction we’d like to take Progreso Weekly and Semanal.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who makes our magazine possible, from our writers who are many, to our readers who are now about 100,000 a month. And I cannot forget those who make this project possible, our sponsors who include many of our readers who contribute generously. Of course, special thanks must go to Marazul and Radio Progreso, and also XAEL Charters and ABC Charters. Without their economic help, Progreso Weekly and Semanal would not be possible.
