OCP: Your independent, locally owned news source, 3 years and growing.

June 2, 2017
OCP: Your independent, locally owned news source, 3 years and growing.
#OceanaCountyNews.
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.
Recently Oceana County Press observed its third-year anniversary and we are very thankful to you, our loyal readers and our great advertisers, for the support. Our service continues to grow and we wanted to share some information with you.
There is often some confusion among Oceana readers who have been used to only getting their news once a week for so many years. I wanted to clear up some of that confusion: We are an independent news source completely separate from the weekly newspaper or any other newspaper.

Allison Scarbrough, Editor

Oceana County Press is only available online and it is completely free because we are 100 percent advertiser supported. In fact, we are the only locally owned news media company, owned by Media Group 31, LLC based in Scottville, that serves this area. The weekly newspaper that serves Oceana County is owned by a corporation based out of another state. For those of you who own businesses, when you advertise with our service, all your money stays in the local economy. It’s kind of like shopping at a locally owned store versus a big box store. Our company uses local services including banking, insurance, website hosting, and Internet service. Our team members spend their money at locally-owned grocery stores and restaurants. Local independent businesses have a 48 percent local recirculation of revenue versus 13.6 percent for out-of-town corporations.

OCP launched in March 2014. In January 2012, we started Mason County Press and in late 2013 we launched Manistee County Press. We are a small operation. The editorial team consists of myself as editor-in-chief and Allison Scarbrough as editor. Allison is a veteran of the Oceana County news scene. She has worked in journalism for almost three decades. My background and experience is almost identical, except I have spent most of my career in Mason County.
Allison works hard to provide you the news. She has a great rapport with local law enforcement, fire departments, and court employees. She takes great pride in being able to get the news to you quickly and accurately. She monitors local emergency channels almost 24 hours a day so we can get to the scene quickly. There is no need to wait a week for the news any more.
We appreciate the loyal and growing following on OCP. Our website, OceanaCountyPress.com, has a daily average viewership of 5,500 and our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/oceanacountypress has almost 9,100 likes. We also provide a free app to our readers through our sister-site, Mason County Press. The Mason County Press app is free and can be downloaded through your devices app store. While the name is MCP, the news covers all three counties we cover. The app gives you the option to receive push notifications, instant alerts on breaking news.
What does all this mean for our advertisers? It means that we can totally measure who is looking at our sites and therefore who is looking at the advertising. Unlike newspaper and radio, we have access to real time, accurate data on who is watching our sites and pages and what they are viewing. Our advertisers have great success not only displaying banner ads, but also utilizing our abilities to tell their stories through the written word, photographs, and video.
Our sales team is led by Dan Vargas, who has over three decades experience in media sales and production. The team also includes Rachel Gale, who many of you know from her years working for the weekly newspaper. Rachel is a native of Hart and has a lot of experience in the Oceana business climate.
Again, I want to thank you for trusting us to provide you with quick and accurate information, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our vision is to be the most trusted and reliable source for news and information in the market we serve, and our mission is for us to be committed to providing news and information for Oceana County with quality, integrity, accuracy and fairness. We always welcome story ideas, submissions, and feedback.
To contact our team:
Allison Scarbrough, Editor
phone/text: 231-923-0113
Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
phone/text: 231-757-3202

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