With the debut of our website redesign, VISTA Today has come a long way since it launched exactly six years ago.

Before November 2014, VISTA Today existed only as an idea in the mind of publisher Ken Knickerbocker, who had long believed there was not only an audience but also a market for the positive news of Chester County.

To illustrate our evolution, more than 38,000 people now subscribe to VISTA Today, and many of them mark the beginning of their day by opening our morning edition to find stories that reinforce why Chester County is such a great place to live, work, study, shop, and play.

We recently enlisted the services of a pair of local companies – Miller Designworks in Phoenixville and Hanlon Creative in Lansdale – to help us create a new website that captures our essence, as well as where we’ve been and where we want to go.

“For years now, Miller Designworks has had the privilege of providing creative and website development support for VISTA Today,” said Steve Miller, the President and Owner of Miller Designworks. “Our new adventure features a custom WordPress theme, with an enhanced experience for visitors on the front end and with an optimized and streamlined workflow and functionality for the editors and staff on the back end. All so that they can focus on their mission – engaging the community through positive news stories that feature the people, places, and businesses of Chester County.”

“Through their promotion of community, commerce, and culture across their targeted regions, VISTA Today provides such a unique value and service to their audience and affiliate partners,” said Andrew Hanlon, the President and Owner of Hanlon Creative.

“Our team at Hanlon was grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with them to refine their message, enhance their site user experience, and continue to drive awareness for their multiple platforms.”

In terms of page views, VISTA Today has grown more than 100 percent this year, having already surpassed the two-million mark for page views. We believe that is a testament to the type of stories we are sharing.

Those of you who know us well understand that we don’t do stories on crime, scandal, politics, etc. We do not practice journalism in the traditional sense, although we are flattered when someone calls us a “news site” or “online newspaper.”

Although we have the utmost respect for journalists and believe reporters and journalists are necessary for a vibrant, healthy democracy, VISTA Today does not share their responsibility to tell both sides of a story.

Our core purpose is to grow our affiliate partners’ businesses, to strengthen the fabric of the communities we serve, and to unite people in a celebration of community, relationships, and life. After all, these affiliate partners – the large companies, small businesses, nonprofits, and universities with stories of success that are often overlooked or underreported – are who sustain us. We enjoy sharing their stories with an audience that otherwise wouldn’t have access to them.

VISTA Today is proud to have won a Small Business Achievement Award from SCORE Chester and Delaware Counties in 2017, as well as the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry’s 2018 Small Business of the Year Award. We are excited to begin the next chapter of our story with the launch of this new website.

Thank you for being a loyal reader and for joining us in our daily celebration of Chester County’s Quality of Place.