Parish Pump: DCO’s story
For New Readers
Devon & Cornwall Online (DCO) was begun in 2009 but didn’t really get underway until spring ’10 because of personnel problems. However, it’s now motoring along, picking up readers and advertisers and taking up more and more of our time.
Apart from our editor, John Evans, Lizzie Hamilton works on various categories from her base in Cornwall, and Rhian Gibbings contributes occasional book reviews and features.
Originally, DCO was set up as a local online newspaper. While it still functions in that way, modifications have had to be made because of the differences between print and pixels.
Obviously, our resources are lower than the massive Daily Mail Group investments in Westcountry newspapers with all the facilities available to them. The Western Morning News, Exeter’s Express & Echo, and all the others, are hard acts to follow. So far, we have had to be selective in the stories we cover. That will change before long.
The BBC’s subsidised local TV News service Spotlight, plus the Beeb’s Devon and Cornwall websites, are also awesome competitors, although thankfully not for advertising revenues.
ITV’s Bristol-based Westcountry Live has a wider remit, but provides a professional and watchable service. So there’s competition galore out there.
Daunted we are not. Devon & Cornwall Online’s considerably smaller cost base does give us some advantages, at least over the commercial outlets, as well as fleetness of foot.
We hope it will go from strength to strength this year. Already it is read by some influentials in the South West, and is picking up readership among senior politicians and national columnists thanks to links from our widely read political site: Syntagma.
We have tried to fashion a distinctive voice for DCO, based around humour, the unexpected, different approaches to storylines, plus a robust stance against poppycock, of which there is no end in this world of ours.
Try advertising on DCO. It’s a piece of cake. We are a totally electronic media business, so all you have to do is email:
ads@devoncornwallonline.com
or use the “Email us” Contact form in the footer of this site. We will take it from there.
