CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Clarksville Now hit a milestone in April 2020, celebrating its 10-year anniversary as Clarksville’s trusted digital news source.
However, two weeks before this milestone, the COVID-19 pandemic began and took precedence as we provided daily news coverage of the many changes rapidly taking place.
The Clarksville Now office closed temporarily for safety and cleaning, but reporters continued to work daily to provide your news now.
A year later, COVID-19 is still a part of our news coverage, but if we learned anything in 2020, it’s to never takes time and life for granted.
So we thought, what the hay, let’s celebrate year 11. It’s better late than never, right?
With that said, join us as Clarksville Now celebrates its 11th anniversary with the Clarksville community, acknowledging more than a decade as an ever-growing and improving digital news source.
The launch
Clarksville Now launched on April 1, 2010, after a year of strategizing and planning.
“There was a need for a hyper-local news site,” said Katie Gambill, president/general manager of 5 Star Media Group in Clarksville. “We felt like it was something our local community was missing. We thought, ‘Let’s put together a website that reports what happens in our community when it happens.'”
Gambill spoke with community leaders from law enforcement, the U.S. Army, and the city and county government to learn more about how Clarksville Now could serve them.
The launch was successful, with the website becoming competing media with the local newspaper and other local digital news sources, and offering a unique pairing of radio and digital news.
“We had something no one else had: We had these big megaphones in radio and using our digital platform and the radio together contributed to our fast growth,” Gambill said.
Lee Erwin worked at 5 Star Radio as an on-air news reporter, public service announcer, and community events emcee for more than 30 years at that time. He was one of the first reporters and photographers and is now the senior reporter at Clarksville Now.
“I knew a lot of people and had contacts,” Erwin said. “We didn’t have anywhere to put photos before, but Clarksville Now provided a spot to show all the community events.”
Baptism by water
Clarksville Now quickly got its feet wet, literally.
In May, the Flood of 2010 washed in when a record-breaking 11 inches of rain fell. Rivers began to rise and soon, much of downtown and several low-lying areas of Clarksville were underwater.
“A month after we launched, the flood happened, and we had to figure out how to marry radio and the new Clarksville Now,” Gambill said. “We were getting 3 million views on Clarksville Now, and I think that was our welcome to the community.”
Reporters had to learn the ropes quickly as they reported closed roads, business closures and more.
“The flood kept us very busy,” Erwin said. “I remember running all over town taking photos of all the areas, at least where you could travel. We did stories on how the flood was affecting people.”
When the waters receded, Clarksville Now pivoted to helping the recovery. “After the flood, we did a few stories on the businesses that were affected and coming back. We wanted to give a little publicity.”
Helping and celebrating the community has always been a part of Clarksville Now’s mission, and Erwin has been there all along.
“I like the positive stories,” Erwin said. “I’ve always enjoyed doing those. Over the years, we’ve evolved into daily community news, but we still cover the positive things going on. … I really enjoy being out in the community and being around people! I love being at events and activities.”
Over the years, Clarksville Now became a go-to for crime reports, event coverage and breaking news.
The format allowed the digital publication to serve information quickly, and to adapt quickly to the rise and growth of news delivered over Facebook and Twitter. From severe weather to the Kirby Wallace manhunt, it increasingly became the place where people turned for the latest breaking news.
The 10th year: An evolving Now
In mid-2020, Clarksville Now made a major transition to produce more journalism and to strengthen its foundation as a trusted news source.
With an opening in the management team, Gambill sought out a journalism-oriented leader to take Clarksville Now to the next level. She recruited Chris Smith, who has worked in local print and digital journalism in Clarksville for two decades.
“When Chris Smith came aboard, we’d taken it as far as we could,” Gambill said. “We needed to become a news source that people can depend on and trust. If we can be unbiased and trustworthy, we will continue to grow.”
Smith became editor-in-chief and digital director on July 6 and implemented several new policies, including Clarksville Now’s Code of Ethics, to help bring the website to the next level in both breaking news urgency and journalism standards.
“I had watched as a competitor for 10 years as Clarksville Now grew from publishing just the basics to doing more and better coverage,” Smith said. “And sometimes I envied their position, with their purely advertiser-focused business model that isn’t tied to subscriptions or a simultaneous print platform.”
Smith brought his newspaper knowledge to the staff and translated it into a new model.
“I came into this knowing that turning Clarksville Now into a digital version of a newspaper would be a bad idea. But instead, the key would be to take the best journalism tools and standards of newspapers and apply them to a digital platform,” Smith said. “That meant adding investigative journalism to the mix.”
To make that possible, Smith reorganized duties to free up the news reporters to focus on unique content. And he narrowed the focus to local news.
“There’s no point in Clarksville Now copy/pasting Associated Press articles when there are dozens of websites out there with reporters in Nashville and Washington and Kabul who can provide better sourcing and expertise. To truly own Clarksville news, we need to stay focused on what’s happening here in Clarksville.”
All of that led Clarksville Now to some key recent milestones in metrics:
- Page views: Over 2.5 million per month
- Facebook: 100,000 Likes, 100,000 Followers
- Instagram: 15,000 Followers
- Twitter: 10,000 Followers
- YouTube: 1,700 subscribers
- Email newsletter: 28,000 subscribers
- Push alerts: 30,000 subscribers
“I love seeing those numbers because it’s tangible proof that what we’re doing is working. But what’s more important, really, is what we’re hearing in the community: That people have noticed and that they appreciate the level of local journalism that we’re providing.”
What’s next for CNow?
As the news organization moves into its second decade, reporters and editors are taking advantage of additional tools to meet readers wherever they want to go.
“We’ve already begun working a lot more with video, and I’d like to see us expand on that,” Smith said. “We’re continuing to follow readers who’ve moved into social media tools like Instagram. I think there are also some opportunities with NewZee 105.5, the new 5 Star Media Group talk radio station, and how we can build up the Clarksville Now content there.”
The focus on breaking news, investigative journalism and community information will continue.
“No matter what we do, the priority will be giving Clarksville local news, and giving it now. That’s been the vision from the beginning,” Smith said. “It’s exciting to be part of that and to see the difference we can make in the community we serve.”
Chris Smith contributed to this article.