Reflecting on a Year of Fredericksburg Patch

It's been one year since Fredericksburg Patch went online. Quite frankly, I'm at a loss for words to mark the occasion.

Perhaps I'll ease it in with some rote numbers. In the 365 days that Fredericksburg Patch has been live, we have published 1,685 articles on every topic from , to , , to , to and . 

More than 2,000 of you are subscribed to one of our daily or weekly email newsletters. 666 of you have started following us on Facebook (by the way, help us get past that unlucky number and tell a friend to follow us). Another 421 keep tabs via Twitter.

You Twitter followers have been my most enlightening and engaging audience. It is largely through you tweeps that I discovered Fredericksburg. In turn, you have repaid me with countless tips. It was through Twitter that I was able to report on the damage wrought by Hurricane Irene, and it was through Twitter that I learned that Virginia State

A year ago I had some preconceived notions about what I wanted my news website to be. I wanted it to be current, I wanted it to be concise, I wanted it to be thorough, and I wanted it to be engaging. Most of all, however, I wanted to be a legitimate journalistic voice for the community.

I hope to have approached some level of success in these arenas.

Know, Fredericksburg, that I am still just getting to know you. Were this a college campus, I would only be just entering my sophomore year. There are still many more things for me to learn, and I cannot wait for you to teach them to me.

On that note, I'd like to hear from you, my loyal readers: what do you want Fredericksburg Patch to be? Have we done our duty as journalists and community liasons? How can we improve our coverage?

Be sure to let me know in the comments below.

As always, your Local Editor,

Michael Theis.