Providence, RI and Portland, OR – GoLocal24, a rapidly growing digital local news and information company, is expanding to the west coast, launching a new site this spring in Portland, Oregon.
GoLocal24, which serves mid-sized markets and is based in Providence, will launch its third news and lifestyle content platform with GoLocalPDX.com.
The company has been delivering news and information to Rhode Island consumers since the company was founded in 2010. The company launched GoLocalWorcester two years ago. Combined, the two platforms now deliver in excess of 7.5 million pageviews per month and just under 800,000 unique visitors monthly.
“In both Rhode Island and Central Massachusetts, we have quickly grown to be a leading source of enterprise local news content,” said Josh Fenton, Co-Founder and CEO at GoLocal24. “GoLocal is creating new ways to access vital news and information for citizens who want their local content delivered digitally.”
GoLocal24 is a privately held company and has attracted local investment from private investors in the Portland market.
Debi Coleman, Former CFO of Apple
“I am excited to be a part of GoLocalPDX entrance in the Portland market,” said Debi Coleman, an investor in GoLocalPDX and the former Chief Financial Officer at Apple. “Journalism is critical to a strong community and GoLocal’s innovative, collaborative and disruptive model aligns content with what users want and need.”
Merrill Brown, the founding Editor in Chief of MSNBC.com and the Director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, says GoLocal has an important opportunity in Portland. “Our company will be in a position to prove that our model works not only in East Coast markets but also in new cities like Portland, a vital cutting edge community that’s a national leader in technology, commerce and food, to name a few. The team at GoLocalPDX will serve the Portland population with great news coverage and will launch new products that will contribute to civic life and encourage civic engagement.” Brown serves on the Board of GoLocal24.
GoLocalPDX.com has begun to hire reporters and editors in the Portland market. The content is locally focused and the company does not aggregate third party sources or publish from news services.
“Portland is an amazing ecosystem – a community that is smart, digital and growing. The media is in a period of transition and we believe we have the opportunity to provide the community another option to read the most important investigative stories coupled with rich lifestyle coverage. GoLocalPDX will also be a vibrant place where diverse views will be embraced and Oregonians can share their strong points of view,” said Fenton.
“Since we launched GoLocalProv in 2010, we have had an absolute commitment to invest in high quality enterprise journalism. We have broken many of the biggest stories in Massachusetts and Rhode Island,” said Fenton, “We will continue to invest in local content – Portland has a rich history of great journalism.”
In the past year, GoLocal has realized multi-hundred percent growth in pageviews, unique visitors and revenue. GoLocal is becoming a part of the daily lives of the citizens of its two communities and is now realizing more than 300% year-over-year in pageview growth in Providence. GoLocal24 was profitable in 2013.
Investment bank Cambridge Pacific and the Ater Wynne law firm were both instrumental in the transaction.
GoLocal24 focuses on delivering the highest value local content – enterprise investigative stories, lifestyle, and local sports. GoLocal’s model highlights the work of many of the best journalists in the region and features top opinion writers including former Massachusetts Speaker of the House Tom Finneran, broadcast sports editors John Rooke and Scott Cordischi, Meteorologist John Ghiorse, Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigative Report Dean Starkman, and includes the work of more than 50 other reporters, editors, experts, and MINDSETTERS™.
Learn more about GoLocal24 www.golocal24.com