Cornwall Ontario – Surviving a conspiratorial City of Cornwall led boycott isn’t easy. As we approach our 8th Anniversary good news is always nice to see especially as we survive on a near non budget with little to no staffing.
Thanks to our many contributors and supporters who helped make this an amazing year audience wise!
We just crunched our January 2017 numbers and thanks to our amazing viewers our key numbers have spiked year over year.
Our Unique Visitors 63,086 (IP Numbers) are up 14.7% from January 2016 to January 2017.
Our Numbers of Visits 176,604 by those visitors are up 20.4%.
And you clicked on 1,325,973 53.6 more pages in January 2017 from January 2016.
(We only report human pageviews – CFN pulled in an additional 1,537,492 non human pageviews.)
We spoke with some really smart business students who crunched some numbers for us. They suggested for example that Troy Hickman of Cornwall Toyota lost 20-24 car sales in 2016 because he boycotts CFN.
Funny enough he pays a Toronto firm to purchase digital ads for him on facebook and other platforms which is odd as there are a few locals that do that same service which really isn’t that hard. It’s funny to see Cornwall Toyota digital ads on CFN that he paid a premium to have placed. Many local businesses are paying far more to see their digital ads on CFN than if they just purchased an ad from us. It’s funny…and sad.
It also then begs the question that if Troy doesn’t support local advertising, or even local services, why should anyone in Cornwall buy a Toyota here? Why not just shop for a better deal in Montreal, Ottawa or Toronto as many of our viewers already do?
Breitbart News saw it’s ads from Kellogg’s pulled and decided to initiate a boycott of their own which saw over 100,000 people sign a petition in a single day.
Can you imagine if CFN did the same? Recently Starbucks opened its first outlet here. Now Starbucks is one of the finest brands on the planet, and one of the largest entities in the business world.
Can you imagine that their corporate head office didn’t even send the largest newspaper in this market a press release or invite to their event? Do you think I’ll ever drink a Starbucks coffee again?
Should CFN ask our viewers to boycott:
Benson’s
Jiffy
Perkins Rona Hardware
Lowes Cornwall
Rurban Brewing
Home Depot Cornwall
Food Basics
No Frills
Your Independent Grocers
Freshco
Cornwall Colts
Cornwall Toyota
Cornwall Volkswagon
Your Credit Union 2nd Street East Branch
Cornwall Nissan
Cornwall Honda
Miller Hughes Ford
Cornwall Kia
Seaway Hyundai
Seaway GM
Alexander Auto
Fitzgerald Auto
Walmart
McEwen
Ramada Inn
Shoeless Joe’s
Eastside Marios
Pommier Jewellers
Love Love Foods
Delaney Bus Lines
Cornwall Golf & Country Club
Summerheights Golf Links
St. Lawrence Pools
Fines Home Hardware
Fence Depot
Future Office Products
Sears Canada
Cornwall Square
Stormont Stationers
Cornwall Business Machines
Remax Cornwall
Ribfest Cornwall
Cornwall Warehousing
Exit Realty
Cornwall Electric
Servicemaster of Cornwall
Winmar of Cornwall
Clean All Environmental Services
Wilson Funeral Home
Lahaie & Sullivan
NAV Spa
NAV CAN
Drake Int’l Cornwall
Rhoice Marketing & Events
Corus Radio Cornwall
Galaxy Cinema Cornwall
Medical Arts Pharmacy
and more.
Of course not. Boycotts are silly and frankly hurt all those named above far more than it’s hurt CFN. The City led boycott has hurt the community far more than it could hurt one entity.
Businesses like Truffles, the Port, and others should not be intimidated or bullied into dropping their ads…or else.
Sadly if local businesses went public with those threats those making them might just be held accountable.
Business should always be about business, numbers. Politics should be an entire other world, and while there are overlaps, bad business decisions lead to results like Kevin & Wendy Hargreaves who just bailed on their Kelsey’s franchise. They were both big on boycotting CFN. Can you imagine a Kelsey’s failing? Only in Cornwall….
Our current mayor, who owns his election win to CFN viewers, stated on video that city lawyers fed the strategy to try and brand this newspaper a “Blog”. Economic Development Officer Bob Peters once tried to use that angle as well, but it really isn’t up to the city lawyers or Mr. Peters to state that a local business that clearly started as an online newspaper, never changed, and now has the most eyeballs of any newspaper in Cornwall isn’t a newspaper, is it? It also showed a lack of awareness and ability to try and frame that square. That’s as silly as Freeholder Editor Hugo Rodrigues trying to suggest that our now closed public art gallery wasn’t really a public art gallery as he shared in a very sad and silly editorial.
February is our 8th Anniversary, and frankly, life is short. There are lots of adventures and opportunities out there.
We have been trying to sell CFN for two years now. Selling newspapers isn’t easy because governments have allowed media to conglomerate so that a few really large chains control most of our media. That’s brutal for our society because they eventually become PR shills instead of actually practicing journalism as we try to do.
I have always stated that if I ever chose to move from this City it wouldn’t be because of slimeballs like Bob Peters, Kevin Hargreaves, David Murphy, Scott Lecky, Sean Adams, Bernadette Clement, Guy Lauzon, Jim McDonell, and rest of the bully rocket scientists that may think they run this city, and their enablers, but simply because the good people of Cornwall simply don’t stand up for themselves and their community.
There have been over 80 million human pageviews of traffic lost to the city and community entities that follow the City led boycott since it started, many out of fear for reprisals. Can you imagine the impact of that on our local economy?
Many of the dragons in the bully club have fallen away into disrepute, failure, retirement, and scandal. Bob Kilger, Chris Savard, Denise Labelle Gelinas, Kevin Hargreaves, Brock Frost, Glen Grant, Gilles Latour, Paul Fitzpatrick, Bryan Merkley, Jim Brownell, and many more have been buried or fled Cornwall as their exploits have been exposed. CFN is about to expose more simply because this strange boycott’s time to end is 2017.
2017 will be the year of naming names in Cornwall.
The irony is that the bad guys caused a sale to fail this December. IE Because of their boycott that they seem to be focusing on in a really personal manner; from my false arrest to other strangeness; if their goal was to stop me, by kiboshing the sale I’m still stuck here. Now that’s irony, but frankly these folks aren’t that clever simply because when generations of cronyism, nepotism, and corruption take root the bar gets lowered to Cornwall standards.
Think about that bad guys and gals, if CFN is sold I might just move to another community that isn’t as special as Cornwall is…..
And the bar is low. Cornwall and Counties residents just have to look at their tax bills as they’re jumping up. There’s an election coming soon though and CFN viewers will be the decision makers in 2018.
So if you want a turnkey newspaper with amazing traffic email jamie@cornwallfreenews.com.
In the meanwhile we will keep growing. We will keep being honest with the people of Cornwall, and our audience from all over the region and Canada.
From Google Analytics
Our Top 20 Canadian Cities for January 2017
1.) Cornwall 41%
2.) Montreal
3.) Ottawa
4.) Toronto
5.) Cobourg
6.) Brockville
7.) Kingston
8.) Clarence Rockland
9.) Alexandria
10.) South Lancaster (hi Ed!)
11.) Mississauga
12.) Gatineau
13.) Hamilton
14.) Morrisburg
15.) Calgary
16.) Moose Creek
17.) Prescott
18.) Belleville
19.) Brampton
20.) Kemptville
Returning Visitor Rate for January 2017
51.36%
Mobile Traffic
47.8%
Organic Search
43.3%
2017 Social Media Demographic Snapshot from our Main Facebook Channel
Our $249 per Year Banner Sale is still on!
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Dial 855 444 1133 to book this and other amazing specials!
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Stay tuned to our 8th Birthday Celebration on February 9th!
Congratulations Jamie for all the very hard work that you do and turn out the best paper in that cursed town. I am shocked that a lot of these corporations have not helped you at all in that backward and useless town. I can’t get over the ignorance and meanness of that town. I left and never to return only for a good laugh on reading about the backward town.
Jules businesses don’t advertise to help a media outlet, but to promote their work. The competition simply can’t offer the traffic and value that CFN can . I’ve had businesses tell me they want to advertise, but are afraid of repercussions. When I tell them to go public they freak out.
You can’t be a city with a “World of Possibilities” working that way.
Jamie I never saw a town so full of hatred, jeolousy and everything that I can name. Cornwall has gone completely insane and that is the truth much worse than it ever was. I was never so happy to leave Cornwall and we moved in a huge snowstorm and our landlord and his managers couldn’t believe their eyes at what they saw of us moving on such a horrible day – anything to leave Cornwall.
And yet here you are posting about Cornwall Jules. I still think there’s a part of you that really misses this town and loves it.
Jamie Cornwall is finished and I mean that fully. The companies that you named is almost the entire town. This is terrible and I mean that. Honest I swear to God, I could never live there ever again under any circumstance and if I ever had to leave Ottawa it would be for somewhere else. Cornwall makes me sick the way the people are and kissing the clique to have work or anything at all.
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Good luck.
I don’t always agree with your positions or with your tactics, but you’re the only real journalist in Cornwall.
I haven’t decided whether or not I want you to find a buyer.
On one hand, you deserve a pay day for all that you’ve accomplished.
On the other, I don’t trust anyone else to expose the cliques and their machinations. Sad how they run all three parties in Cornwall.
Jamie people like yourself who have papers have to pay for all those expenses and when people advertise with you it helps with the payments. This is really bad like I always said the clique is what has driven Cornwall down to hell. Cornwall would have prospered if it were not for that dirty clique. The people are sheep they are heading to the cliff of disaster if they don’t change their ways.
They actually do run all three parties locally. It’s kinda scary Josh. I need to be able to hire staff. Cornwall needs jobs. Based on market share alone CFN should be able to hire 4-6 people. Those jobs are not at other media, Corus no longer has a newsroom, the Seaway News cut one position, and how much longer will the Freeholder be around?
Jules if we had a single lonely dollar from every viewer per month we’d have 4-6 more staff and of course more content and reason to read CFN.
Jamie Cornwall has lost so much and believe me people take a market search before bringing a business to Cornwall and even bringing their families to settle down there. Cornwall could have advanced many years ago but the dirty clique kept them down. These people have ot be run out of town but it is too late because they destroyed Cornwall completely. A GM plant wanted to go there and guess what
It only makes sense to buy locally ? I whole heartedly agree ! I fully understand that ! However, for about 3 years now, I’ve completely thrown that idea out the window ! My last 2 cars, bought out of town & I saved a bundle, I shop often at Costco, go to the cinemas there also, etc, etc, etc. WHY YOU SAY,,, I’m a CFN reader & I hate bullies . This is my little protest !