We Are Changing Our Format

This blog was started as a public service to help keep folks informed about things going on in our world.  That “world” started out as Greater Pottstown but expanded to include the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (and sometimes our next door neighbors New Jersey and Delaware).

WE ARE 100% NON-PROFIT.  With more and more newspapers requiring paid subscriptions or offering only restricted access it has become increasing difficult to share information.  We have no budget, we have no advertisers or sponsors to offset these costs.  Therefore, effective immediately, we are only going to publish press releases, event flyers or original content.

As much as this saddens us, news access is going to continue to shrink without paid subscriptions.  This is a hobby, not a business.

We will continue to share news on our Facebook page because “sharing” information that way is kosher and free for now, apparently.  Our page can be found by clicking this link if you aren’t familiar with it

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Roys-Rants/135214378191?ref=hl

We have to roll with the changing times and we thank you for your support since 2009.  Hopefully these changes will keep us around a while longer.

Stats Suggest Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Media Market Is Among Nation’s Most Racist

In the anonymous world of the Internet, people in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area and surrounding counties use the n-word in Google searches more often than most areas of the United States, according to statistics compiled by a top data scientist.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton media market — which includes Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania along with some counties in New York and New Jersey bordering the region — ranked 16th out of 196 nationwide for frequency of computer users searching the word, the data reveals.

Read the original study

Residents of the media market used the racial slur in online searches more than anywhere else in Pennsylvania except the Johnstown-Altoona media market, according to a study by a data scientist who gathered the information for a 2013 report about how racial animus affected the presidential elections of Barack Obama.

Read more:

http://citizensvoice.com/news/stats-suggest-wilkes-barre-scranton-media-market-is-among-nation-s-most-racist-1.1872856

The Sanatoga Post Will Cease Publication Saturday

Editor’s note: We wish our friend and fellow journalist Joe Zlomek a fond farewell as he turns the page and begins a new chapter in his life.  Joe has been a friend to us and was very encouraging when we first started out back in 2009.  We always appreciated his assistance.  Joe is an excellent journalist and we benefited from his gracious kindness over the years.  Good luck with your new endeavor!

SANATOGA, PA – Although it was founded in August 2008, the adventure that has been The Sanatoga Post really began a month later, on Sept. 23 of that year, when I arrived at a Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ meeting for what was then the start of discussions about reconstruction of Ringing Rocks Elementary School.

It was the first “government” meeting I covered in the managing editor persona of this fledgling online news service. The meeting itself was poorly attended except for board members, Pottsgrove School District officials, and representatives of Gilbert Architects there to talk about their dream design for Ringing.

I presented a business card to then district Solicitor Kyle Berman and explained my intention to report on the proceedings. Berman, in turn, handed the card to former Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis, who eyed me with some suspicion. I wrote a story and published the next day. The Post was off and running.

It seems fitting, then, that Tuesday’s (March 11, 2014) Pottsgrove school board meeting also is the last I anticipate covering.

Read more: http://sanatogapost.com/2014/03/12/sanatoga-post-will-cease-publication-saturday/#comment-112834

AOL’s Local News Sites To Lay Off Up To 500

NEW YORK — AOL Inc. is laying off up to half the workforce at its Patch local news sites and shuttering or consolidating roughly 150 of the 900 sites while looking for partners for others.

Up to 500 of Patch’s 1,000 employees will go in the layoffs, which started on Friday with 350 people getting pink slips. In all, the layoffs amount to about 9 percent of AOL’s total workforce of 5,500.

AOL Inc. CEO Tim Armstrong co-founded Patch, an ambitious experiment in local news meant to compete with newspapers, in 2007. AOL bought it in 2009 after Tim Armstrong had taken over the helm of the New York-based Internet company.

Read more:  http://www.timesleader.com/news/business/759140/AOLs-local-news-sites-to-lay-off-up-to-500

Times Leader Readership Sees Largest Annual Increase In State

The Times Leader has the second highest percentage growth rate in the nation — and highest in the state — for its total online and print audience, according to figures tracked by a newspaper auditing group.

The Times Leader ranked second among U.S. newspapers of any size participating in the most recently released report issued by the Alliance for Audited Media.  The company used total online and print reader numbers available at the end of March to create its rankings of the top 25 papers.

The Times Leader’s audience of 219,656 was up 19.4 percent from the year prior figure of 184,037.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/747370/Times-Leader-readership-sees-largest-annual-increase-in-state