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The What, When and Why of this site

By Charlie Haeffner

ODESSA, Nov. 9 -- I was watching a movie the other night -- "Shopgirl" with Claire Danes and Steve Martin -- about the delicate nature of interpersonal relationships.

And as I sat there, I thought how little the theme applies to my life.

I mean, relationships? Of the complicated, man-woman nature? I have none; haven't had one for a couple of years now...

And so the movie didn't really resonate with me. It was low-keyed and sweet, but left little in the way of residual emotion.

But then, pondering it afterward, I started thinking that the life that has been handed me is actually full of relationships -- just not of the romantic kind.

No, the relationships I have -- the people with whom I've connected -- are fairly widespread. I have, through this website, found friends of all ages, from students to teachers to administrators to government officials to ... well, to a lot of other good people.

There are relationships, too, of a faceless variety, with folks I never see. They are this website's outside readers, a composite group of worldwide residents who turn their eyes, with some regularity, to the little county of Schuyler.

Some of them write me, and some of them send money to help me keep this site afloat. Most seem to depend on me being here with the news and the photos. Anonymity is their prevailing identity. I know nothing personal about them ... and they know only snippets about me. And sometimes they seem to know little about the website itself -- its workings, its origin, its philosophy.

Several times in the past few days, I've received comments by phone and e-mail to the effect that "you guys" are doing a nice job producing The Odessa File. Another person, overhearing a conversation in which I mentioned the unsettling truth that "if I go down, the site goes down," asked rather incredulously: "It's just you?"

Well ... yeah. Pretty much. I print an occasional guest column -- State Senator George Winner produces one each week -- and I receive press releases that require only a little editing, but ... yeah, it's just me running things. There are no other employees. No staff of writers. No other photographers. No other editors. No other ad salespeople. Nobody else.

I mentioned the recent comments to my youngest son, Dave, who works up in Syracuse, and he said I should probably update folks on what this whole venture is about, and what I'm about. There are new readers constantly finding the site, he said. They could probably use the input.

So, in the spirit of education, I'll do that.

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WHO: I'm a middle-aged guy who always liked writing. That's what I am, at the heart of it all: a writer. I long wanted to produce a Schuyler-based printed paper, but this website seemed to be an easier course to follow -- much less overhead -- if I could only get people to visit it. Which they have.

My background is mostly journalism: the Pontiac (now Oakland) Press in Michigan during college summers, the Watertown (NY) Daily Times, the Elmira Star-Gazette, The Corning Leader, and a stint at USA Today. I've won a bunch of writing awards on the state level, and I earned a bunch of in-house kudos during my time at USA Today. I've written and internet-produced four novels, and I co-produced a non-fiction book about the Odessa-Montour girls basketball state title run.

Photography is something I took up early in my career, and something I love. I turned from 35-millimeter cameras to digital when I started the website -- a move born out of economic necessity (the cost of film and processing), and practicality (speed is of the essence, and digital is much faster than film). I have improved as I've gone along, learning the finer points of my cameras and how to shoot sports events.

I'm a widower with three grown sons. My wife -- Susan Bauman Haeffner, who loved the website and was an exceptional photographer for it -- died suddenly a couple of years ago. So when I say it's pretty much just me, that wasn't always the case, but certainly has been since then.

WHAT: The website was created at the suggestion of my son Dave, who is a computer whiz. It was a simple, bold idea that I seized four years ago this Thanksgiving. Six weeks after the suggestion, I published the first story and photos on the site. Then it was a matter of finding readers, which through press releases and word of mouth started happening.

From a smattering of visits at first, the site started attracting a few hundred readers a week, and then a few thousand -- and now easily tops 20,000 visits a week. While writing remains my main ability, the attraction is actually the photos, which are downloadable (just right click on a photo) at no charge. So don't be shy; if you see any you like, go ahead and print them.

As I mentioned, overhead is much lower with an electronic newspaper than a printed one -- but there still are costs. There is equipment -- I've bought a half-dozen cameras during my venture, along with fairly expensive lenses -- and transportation and, above all, time that the effort takes away from other potential money-making ventures.

Some folks don't understand that -- how time-consuming the gathering and writing and illustration of news can be. But look sometime at the list of folks who are on hand to produce a printed newspaper. At a weekly, you'll see two dozen names. A small daily might require 40 or 50 employees by the time you factor in ad salespeople, the business office, the reporters, the photographers, the editors, and so on.

By contrast, my staff consists of one person. One. To do the job of many. Think about it the next time you take this operation for granted.

It's true: If I go down, the site goes down.

WHEN: The first story and photos were published here on Dec. 29, 2002. The first readership consisted of me and a friend I called. A flyer I distributed at a basketball game generated a few more readers, and a story in the Star-Gazette helped, although a TV interview really didn't. The night it aired, we were without power throughout Schuyler County, so nobody here saw it.

This is a seven-days-a-week operation, with an occasional break when I take off on a vacation. When I go, though, I usually take along my laptop, so I can add things -- press releases, columns, photos from the road, obits and so on -- from a remote location.

A typical day starts as soon as I arise. I check the computer for e-mails -- story ideas, press releases, obits or whatever -- and catch up on what I might have failed to finish the night before. Then I go out into the communities around here and gather news, and come back and write what I've found, and then go out in the evening for meetings or sports events. Then it's back home -- getting to be late now -- where I start writing the stories and processing the photos and laying it all out and sending it across to the server upon which I rent space.

And hopefully, by the time everyone is getting up for work or school, the stories are there for them.

That means some pretty sleep-deprived nights. I might get to bed at 3 or 4 in the morning -- or I might crash at about midnight, sleep a couple of hours, get up and work until 5 or 6, and then try to get a few more hours sleep.

I feel sometimes like I haven't had a good night's sleep in four years. Which isn't too far from the truth.

WHY: This county -- and for that matter any county -- needs a solid base of communication. It needs a way to find things out quickly and easily ... a way for its people to connect to what's going on in their midst.

That's the basic philosophy here. Beyond that, there's the positive reinforcement the website gives the students in our schools -- a place where they get recognized for achievements that might otherwise be ignored by media.

Really, this county is often overlooked by the regional news organizations. They come in here once in a while, for a race weekend or when something bad happens. That's the way it's always been.

We are blessed with a weekly newspaper, but it has limitations of space and timing. It might not get a story out there until it's well over a week old. That's the nature of weeklies. But in this new technological world, stories can in fact get out there in minutes or hours. The Gannett news organization recognized that recently when it told its chain of newspapers to amp up their websites; I think the Star-Gazette had already started. But again, that coverage often has little to do with Schuyler County.

HOW: For two years, this operation lost money, low overhead and all. Then, with the death of my wife, it teetered on the brink of oblivion as I fought economic and emotional battles within. A surge in advertising helped right the ship, but donations started sliding. Folks just didn't want to contribute to the cause, didn't want to help support that which they tended to utilize with some regularity.

But I'm still here, somehow. I recently lost my primary sponsor, Corning Building Company, but Schuyler Hospital has moved into that high-profile spot. That leaves a hole where the original hospital ad used to be -- but hopefully I'll fill that soon.

This is all a pretty precarious balancing act, really. I have page sponsors I depend on hugely, and regular advertisers who back them up, and I have donations. Those are up this year, thank heavens -- but the sad reality is that only about 5 percent of the site visitors bother to support the venture monetarily. If I hit a stretch where I lose advertisers -- or where donations slip again, or both -- then the simple economic reality is that I might have to fold up this operation and go do something else.

There are untapped advertisers out there, I realize. I'm just not sure how to find them, or how to convince them that they should be on board helping what is, in essence, a pretty positive community service. I just don't have much time to devote to advertising development. Not when I'm doing everything else.

I should probably be more frustrated than I am by the relatively weak support shown by the readership. It's just that I really love the writing and photography and the interaction all of this affords me in our communities. I think it's important that this site or one like it provide a daily dose of information on what's happening around here. If I disappear, I hope someone else takes up the cause. But I doubt anyone will do it -- at least to the extent that I have.

In order to run a website like this with any sort of proficiency, a person would need to be a fairly fast writer, a competent photographer, at least moderately savvy in the ways of computers, and willing to forgo sleep on a regular basis.

That person would have to be willing to put up with irate e-mailers who feel empowered by criticizing the website for no reason other than a compulsion to vent.

That person would have to expect early-morning phone calls that interrupt the already fractured sleep cycle.

That person, whenever he or she waded into coverage of a controversial story, would have to expect criticism just for being the messenger.

That person, if not married, would have to accept the fact that a serious interpersonal relationship is -- given the work hours -- probably going to be a thing of the past.

That person would, in other words, have to be a little nuts.

Which -- the logical extension seems to say -- is what I probably am.

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Want to help this site continue? There are Paypal buttons near the top of many pages on the left, or you can send a check along to me at P.O. Box 365, Odessa, NY 14869.

Photo in text: Charlie Haeffner (Photo by Dave Haeffner)