Tim Yeager, who was interviewed in a recent article on our web site, says he was “astonished at the speed of the article, not only going up on the web site, but also the speed it was picked up by news media and blogs and made its way around the world.”
Our article quoted Yeager, a Chicago trade unionist and Episcopal church member, talking about the new Religion Commission launched by the Communist Party USA. In less than 24 hours it was posted or mentioned by the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and Religion News Service, to name a few.
“Within a few hours I got e-mail from someone in England,” Yeager said. “Within a few days I got e-mails from several different states, asking for more information.” Some of the response was from right-wingers, of course, but the key thing is the amount of genuine, positive interest the article generated. Frankly, he said, he wasn’t prepared for it.
The People’s Weekly World’s expanding online reporting is “a great tool,” said Yeager, who has also written for us and is a longtime reader and supporter. “Because of its speed and breadth, we also need to figure out providing content that invites rapid response, and be prepared for rapid response. People want information, they want resources. We have to be able to respond to the need.”
Out in St. Louis, PWW writer Tony Pecinovsky regularly e-mails his articles from pww.org to “leaders in the union movement, community activists, and even politicians.”
“One state rep read excerpts from one of my articles on the floor of the Missouri House,” he said. The St. Louis Labor Tribune has reprinted some of his pww.org articles. This month the Apollo Alliance features a link to an article he did at the America’s Future conference.
PWW reporter Pepe Lozano gets his stories out to his 500-plus Facebook friends every week, and they regularly post comments.
Editorial Board member Joe Sims says, “In a typical week, about 20,000 people read our online pages. But more important is the personal touch. My niece listened to an audio podcast I did recently on the financial crisis. She said, ‘Now I understand why the economy is going to hell!’ She would never have read an article in our newspaper. But a podcast on Facebook — that’s how she connects.”
These are a few examples of the vast power of the Internet that we are only beginning to tap. We will be launching our wonderful new web site soon, with new tools to widen our reach, to get the news out and build the people’s movement. Those tools don’t come for free, though. . $500, $100, $50, $10, $5 — more, less, no gift is too big or too small. It’s exciting — !
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