OkThis post on this day, April 15th, 2023, at 2 PM ET is the 50,000 published post on GraniteGrok.com. That sounds like a lot, and maybe it is, but the ‘Grok had some very humble beginnings, and it wasn’t until more recently that we truly cranked out the content.
Related: Attorney General Bill Barr Explains Why New Hampshire Needs GraniteGrok.com
It took a bit of digging, but I worked out a few waypoints in the journey from where two guys shared thoughts they didn’t think anyone would read to whatever it is we are today.
If you don’t know the story, GraniteGrok started in 2006 with two guys, some cameras, some free time, and the wide-open internet. Not a lot of blogs back then, and they did well in that landscape, establishing a practice that continues to this day—operating on a set of constitutional conservatarian principles through which politics and culture are filtered.
Put another way, we are here for the unapologetic principles, not some political party or agenda, and sometimes that pisses people off.
From 2006 to Feb 2010, when I came on board, GraniteGrok had published 4,790 posts, or about 1,198 a year.
In early 2010 Skip began recruiting more writers. He needed and wanted some help. At the time, I was aggravating NH Libs from NH Insider.com when several other folks and I were invited to broaden the style, tone, and audience of GraniteGrok – many of whom have since drifted away (or, in the case of Ed Naile, passed away).
From late Feb 2010 (when I started here) to December 2017, Granite Grok added 23,848 more posts. That’s just over 3400 a year or 280+ every month. And no, that is not a strange place for a pin drop. Early 2018 was when I promised we could surpass the Keene Sentinel in online traffic and eventually everyone else in online NH print media along with them.
And we did.
From Jan 2018 until this post you are reading now, we added another 21,362 articles or items, 4000+ a year or 334 per month. And before getting canceled by Facebook, we were catching up to WMUR (Election season 2020) and owned the number one spot for traffic among all online print news media portals in the state, much of Vermont, and parts of Maine and Massachusetts.
Since Facebook canceled us (though I’ve recently gone back to sharing some milder stuff there to see what happens), we’ve added footprints on other platforms, but most of our traffic comes straight to our front door. We could drop social, and it wouldn’t make much difference.
Is it because we added more op-eds? We give our readers a place to express their views to stimulate more debate. Content-sharing agreements have been developed. And someday, though I can’t say when because it is out of my hands, we’ll have a Grok App and the site updates we’ve promised, including an ad-free premium option (fingers crossed).
What’s Next?
Adding another 50,000 posts at this pace will take 12.47 years, but if free speech is still a thing, and I haven’t dropped dead or wandered off the mental acuity plantation (or been put in jail for disagreeing with the regime), I may still be at it. I hope someone is, if it’s not Skip or me. 100K seems like a milestone worth achieving, as long as it is still original content filtered through that unapologetic conservatarian filter.
NH should always have that.
We’ve seen many political blogs come and go in this state on both sides. Groups, coalitions, alliances, organizations. People have risen fast and burned out, never to be heard from again. Longevity is not typical. It’s rare. Maybe we’re the only ones dumb enough to persist at a hobby that increasingly looks like shouting in the darkness.
We like to think of it as lighting a candle and minding it with perseverance and tenacity. We want to ensure people who are looking can find their way, which I think I summed up nicely in my memoriam to Ed Naile and John Irish.
Ed and John were in it for the long haul, come what may. And they woke up, maybe not every morning but most, with an idea about how they could help, what it would require of them, and they did that.
We cannot replace them; we can only succeed them. And not like them but in their spirit, because the battle against tyranny is eternal, as is the desire for liberty but tyranny never rests, so – like them – neither shall we.
Whatever happens, for however long it does, we intend to keep at it, and we hope you’ll continue to come along for the ride.
