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MageeNews.com is celebrating 10 years of service to the community through our online presence! I can’t believe I have been in front of a computer for 10 years…where have the years gone?
Many of you know the story of MageeNews.com and how it started, but for the ones who don’t…here goes!
When I was in my twenties (along time ago!), a group of friends formed a mission group called the BYW (Baptist Young Women). Many of us had grown up together and now we were married…having babies… and working. Through the years, I began writing a letter each month to the members of our Baptist group sharing what was happening in and around Magee and within our own families. My boys always said it was a “gossip” letter…but it wasn’t …we just needed to know everything about everyone! The “title” of my letter was “Message from the prez” and always began “Girls! Girls! Girls.”
Sixteen years ago, I received a computer. Now, I didn’t even know how to turn the computer on…but slowly I taught myself how to send an email and a few other minor accomplishments. I would come home several times a day and send an email about what I had seen on my trips around town. I reported deaths…births…happiness…and sadness. Soon, there were 500 people on my email list! Many of the emails were coming into computers as spam. People would call and fuss at me for not sending the “Message from the prez.” I had sent the email…the computers were just rejecting! Ty Meador, Tawesia and Tommy’s son, came to see me one day. Ty told me I needed to build a website. Well, I told Ty I just could send an email how did he think I could manage a website. “We will build it and you will learn it,” said Ty. And that my friends is how MageeNews.com was “born.”
Our “first” home page was posted around the first of March and Michael Dunn was on the web site for receiving the “Spirit of Magee” award!
Since this time, we have redesigned the website about 4 or 5 times. For ten years, I have been blasting the happenings of Magee all over the world. MageeNews.com was one of the first ten websites allowed in China! (That happened because Dickey’s friend Andy Mundy was in China and kept trying to get on the site. MageeNews.com was tagged as a terrorist website…isn’t that a hoot! When the Olympics came to China, the airways were opened…and in we went!)
We have had as many as twenty million hits in a month! Now, I have no idea “who all” looks at the site, but I can tell you this…people come from everywhere!
When I began MageeNews.com, one of the things I really wanted was affordable advertising. Because my family had been in retail for years, I knew the importance and cost of advertising. We have strived to keep MageeNews.com advertising prices so even the smallest business person can advertise.
As I look toward the future, I see lots of changes in site. We will continue to strive to accurately report news and information. We will strive to promote Simpson County and Mississippi. We will strive to make wise choices.
During the month of March, I am going to share a memory of years past! I hope you will enjoy. I hope you will share memories with me. (Ya’ll know I don’t remember too well!!!)
Thank you for the memories!
My first memory is Michael Dunn! I will always remember he was the first person featured on the home page of MageeNews.com.
