Ron H. Cosby, President and CEO
City-County Observer
When I first called Joe Wallace in the winter of 2010, I was simply seeking to verify a few facts about a story that the City-County Observer was working on about some of the activities undertaken by the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville, or GAGE, during his time as the founding President and CEO. What the City-County Observer has ended up with over the course of the last six months as a result of that call are a return to our core values, a transformational strategy, and a renewed spirit of execution.
On that first phone call Mr. Wallace spent about an hour not only answering my questions to the extent that he could, but engaging me in a conversation about the business of the City-County Observer, my start-up online newspaper that serves greater Evansville. It seemed as though he had been reading our content for some time and had been formulating some ideas and opinions about our business. After hanging up, I decided to offer Mr. Wallace the opportunity to serve as a consultant to the City-County Observer.
His consultancy started off with a simple examination of our core values of being an advocate for good public policy and ways to build a business around that concept. Joe always called this the period of becoming aware of what is needed to prosper. Together we engaged in deep discussions about format, content, revenue, distribution, and costs. He was always focused on the actions required to achieve the long term goals of the City-County Observer as opposed to the day to day emotions that a news based business tends to be distracted by.
After many meetings on building awareness, Joe became insistent that I as the business owner acknowledge the changes that were needed and internalize the new way of operating that we had jointly agreed would benefit my business. After guiding me through the ideas and actions that would raise the ability of the City-County Observer to prosper and serve our core mission, we set out on developing a practical action plan that was achievable with the talents and resources at our disposal.
Our action plan included, broader and more detailed content, expanded authorship, a migration plan to a daily format, a diversified revenue model, and cost control measures that lowered our operating costs by over 50%. Additionally, Joe advised that we invest in equipment to enhance our video capability. He is cultivating contributing authors from across the country to submit scholarly articles to this publication. The results have been dramatic. During our third month of working together alexa.com reported that our readership had increased by 300%. In a more recent analysis for a three month period our metrics are as follows:
Global Internet Reach: +50%
Visits from Search Engines: +50%
Page Views: +27%
Time on Site: +137%
Page Views: +20%
Global Ranking: up 1,735,000 places
I am personally pleased and astonished at the level of positive results that Mr. Wallace’s practical advice and guidance has brought to the City-County Observer. It is clear to me why he was selected to head an organization that had a mission to assist entrepreneurs and local businesses. The value that his practical and hands on consulting services have brought to the City-County Observer have paid for themselves many times over in a very short time. I am looking forward to a continuous and prosperous relationship with Joe and want to encourage the business community of greater Evansville to do the same. It is my strong recommendation that if your business is experiencing stagnation in the marketplace or if your desire for growth is stymied by lack of direction or vision, Joe Wallace is an affordable, results driven agent of change who will respectfully guide you to a path toward prosperity. I have included his contact information below.
Joe J. Wallace, Hadannah Business Solutions
13815 Castle Brook Road, Evansville, IN 47725
www.hadannahbusiness.com (812) 431-3877
