This week marks four years since we started The SE Voice – and what a four years it has been!

As you may well remember, we kicked off with a weekly paper, before quickly growing into a twice weekly publication less than a year later.

Looking back it seems a lifetime ago, but I cannot help but marvel at how we have grown.

We made the decision in December last year to switch to a fully digital publication – and it’s one of the best decisions we have ever made.

Our fully interactive online flipbook is the best looking digital newspaper going round (I may of course be a little biased!), however that sentiment has been echoed to me from far and wide.

I am beyond proud of what my team has achieved, and I have watched in awe as they stepped up to every challenge, not only taking it in their stride, but doing it with ease.

I have also been humbled by our local advertisers who “get” what we are trying to achieve.

These local businesses are forward-looking, they can see the value in having a strong digital presence in a world where seemingly everyone has their life at the fingertips.

I commend them for future proofing their businesses, embracing the new ways of the world and diving in with us to access a much more far reaching audience.

Not only are they featured in our twice weekly online e-book, several of them have also taken the next step to advertise on our website – further increasing their visibility.

We have built the most wonderful relationships with our advertisers, who have fast become friends, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for supporting our wholly local, family owned business.

When it comes to our audience – our much loved readers and subscribers – we have managed to grow our online engagement by more than 1000%.

At the end of May we clocked up the magnificent milestone of one million interactions on our website.

At the time I was absolutely blown away by those figures.

Well here we are mid-way through September and we are fast approaching two million.

As we often say in our office, that’s a lot of eyeballs on our pages reading our news and sport, and learning what our local businesses have to offer through their interactive advertising.

Figures like that blow me away while at the same time I feel like I’m bursting with pride at what my team has been able to achieve.

We pride ourselves on our high level of interactions, given it shows our readers are actively engaging with our site, rather than just popping in via click-bait.

Anybody can post an attention grabbing link, but we take the time to ensure a spread of content that actively engages our reader, rather than a once off visit.

We take the time to have a conversation with our readers, rather than talk at them, as so often happens with print media.

Thanks must also go to our many contributors who work with us to produce such a quality publication.

It never fails to amaze me how generous people can be with their time, rest assured your efforts are so genuinely appreciated, not just by me, but by the people who read your contributions and admire your photography.

It’s never taken for granted.

As we reach this four year milestone it’s clear that we have not finished growing, there are still plenty of big plans in place as we continue to evolve our digital footprint.

The beauty of living online is that we are not bound by traditional print deadlines, and while we still adhere to our Tuesday and Thursday publication days, we are able to update our website 24/7 to ensure we reflect the most up to date, latest news and information.

There are some exciting times ahead as we continue to grow The SE Voice, and we cannot wait to take you along for the ride.

Thanks to each and every one who has played a part in the success of The SE Voice, your support is not only appreciated, but wholeheartedly cherished.

Here’s to much more future success.

Lechelle and The SE Voice team