Your favorite place for all the news that should be fun is growing up. It’s time to celebrate one year of TPP!
It has been a journey. Started one year ago today, That Park Place has become one of the fastest-growing entertainment news sites on the web. Beginning with only three writers and a mission, the website has now grown with more than a dozen contributors and a team of journalists looking into all the news that should be fun.
Growth in readership for That Park Place has also been phenomenal during the first year. Nothing the website does could be at all possible without the marvelous readers and commenters who visit the site daily. In September of last year, when the site was only two months old, That Park Place had 4,870 readers in the month. For our one year anniversary, TPP is estimated to top 75,000 readers for this month of July… breaking yet another record of 67,000 in June. We’re not quite as big as we intend to be, but we’re no longer a small site like we were in the early months.
There are many individuals we’d like to thank as we begin our second trip around the sun as a website. We can’t get everyone, but here are just a few special people on our list:
Dr. Michael Sturgeon was integral in getting the site up and running quickly with all of the backend work to ensure it would be easily carried on the algorithms of the web. Not only that, but even has his vision deteriorated, Dr. Sturgeon continued to assist with changes made to the layout of the site and features made available in June. Dr. Sturgeon has been a key part of the team and we are exceedingly pleased that a recent eye surgery has made it possible for him to see once more!
In the very beginning of the site, people didn’t know at large where to find WDW Pro. They didn’t know That Park Place existed. That’s where a channel called Overlord DVD came in with the star of the channel, Doomcock, offering a major assist. With no strings attached, DC promoted the site just to make sure his followers and fans knew where they could find the latest news that should be fun. In doing so, he provided a tremendous early boost to TPP and we are eternally grateful.
We have an individual on our legal team we want to shout out but we’re going to keep his name quiet. He knows who he is. Time after time, when we have needed legal documents to fulfill a story, this guy has been on it. From explaining to use the process for FOIA requests to pulling up Reedy Creek paperwork with ease, we have the best legal eagle in the business. It 100% puts our website at an advantage others just can’t compete with.
We’d also like to thank two special contributors: John Golf and Lorn Conner. Mr. Golf has been with TPP since the very early days. Writing about trips to Las Vegas, time shares, a cooter festival… he has been just wonderful about giving us content that nobody else is doing. And our readers appreciate it! On a daily basis, we know we can look to Mr. Golf for authentic travel articles that are unique to him, now to us. In the same vein, we’re so pleased that Mr. Conner has been a part of this journey. Originally identified by WDW Pro as an awesome commenter, we just reached out to see if he’d like to guest write. That turned into much more. Prolific writing on Star Wars and the Extended Universe have turned TPP into a premier place to understand George Lucas’ sprawling story. We certainly couldn’t even imagine to do that without Lorn.
Finally, we’d also like to thank Cham Lee and Sarah Carson for their work on the site. Whether it has been finding trending videos on YouTube, covering Zombies 3 or posting articles about the latest news in K-Drama streaming, they have always been game. We sure do appreciate these ladies’ hard work and dedication to creating accurate content for our readers.
Of course, we also send our very best to WDW Pro, Pamela Fitzgerald, Rick Frazier, Manú Lopez and our newest addition to the team: Valliant Renegade. Day-in and day-out, they make the site move.
Most of all though, we thank each and every one of you out there following the site. Without you, none of this is possible. Each time you check back in with us, it really does matter. And together, we’ll continue to put a spotlight on all the news that should be fun but other places around the web seem to just not want to cover.
It’s been a blast and we’re only just getting started.
For all the news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below and let us know your thoughts!
