By Roberta F. King, Vice President PR & Marketing, Grand Rapids Community Foundation

A year ago, The Rapidian was launched in Grand Rapids, Michigan with much fanfare. Seriously, we held a launch party with about 100 supporters and counted down the seconds until the site went live at 4 p.m. Sept. 15, 2009.

The fanfare was only the beginning of what has been a successful venture in nonprofit citizen journalism and an amazing leadership opportunity for the Community Foundation. The success of year rests squarely on the shoulders of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center, which spearheaded site design and instituted the values of The Rapidian. The numbers show that The Rapidian is a solid source for hyperlocal news in Grand Rapids. The site has 206 reporters, 13 editorial mentors and 128 active nonprofit users with hundreds more registered users, several who comment often.

In a year’s time it has had more than 311,000 page views; almost 112,000 visits; 47 percent are new visitors and people spend 3:39 seconds with us when they visit. And a lot of traffic comes via social media – Facebook drive 21 percent of visits, Twitter 5 percent and our local newspaper’s website MLive brings us 1 percent of traffic. We know we are getting our name out there, 25 percent of visitors use www.therapidian.org make a direct connection and 25 percent find it from a Google search.

“At the beginning, about 40% of our visitors arrived via social media. Now it’s over 54%. This shows that not only does the community’s participation in reporting matter, but we also rely on the community to help distribute the content by sharing and reposting liberally,” Laurie Cirivello, publisher of The Rapidian said..

The concept of hyperlocal news has spread in Grand Rapids.

“Once a niche term, it is a centerpiece of almost all media efforts these days. This has increased our credibility and we have seen new invitations for partnerships by more traditional platforms,” Cirivello said.

“The Grand Rapids Community Foundation has played a critical role in the creation and growth of The Rapidian, demonstrating the extreme value of a good partnership. They have provided leadership, project marketing and funding (along with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation) to get the Rapidian off the ground. The Community Foundation’s confidence in the project continues to act as a catalyst for growth and increased community awareness,” Cirivello said.

The success of The Rapidian also comes from a dedicated corps of citizen reporters who have covered a myriad of stories in a mix of media. Some highlights from year one include:

• We started with an influx of ArtPrize coverage in 2009, including a wealth of profiles from one Grand Rapids Community College class.
• Our stance on identity is key.
• We lost a friend and team member, Drew Storey.
• A Rapidian reporter catches some hot breaking news.
• Ruth Terry on finding the state that fits.
• Ryan Hipp‘s photo essay on Grand Rapids’ graffiti.
• Grand Valley State University students collaborate on education coverage.
• Matthew Altena’s audible adventure in a boxing ring.
• Roberta King’s ten-part series of runner profiles participating in the Riverbank run.
• The Rapidian makes a splash at the WMPRSA awards.
• Douglas Dooley’s brush with hip-hop greatness.
• Michael Tuffelmire and Nick Manes explore Grand Rapids’ Heartside neighborhood in three parts.
• Carolyn Schaut doesn’t chicken out when it comes to local government coverage.

Matthew Russell, content coordinator for The Rapidian contributed to this blog post.