WASHINGTON — Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of WorldNetDaily.
That’s right … four full years of daily publishing on the Internet. And some people say there’s no way news and other content sites can make it. We’ve not only got a future, we’ve got a past to prove it.
May 5, 1997, is when it all started.
Most of you wouldn’t know that because my wife, Elizabeth, and I launched WorldNetDaily in semi-secret. It began as something of a cottage industry. She was the self-taught webmaster and high-tech guru and I was the editorial staff. The whole thing was cooked up nightly in our bedroom/office — mostly after we put the kids to sleep.
We started without fanfare because we had no idea of what we were doing.
Oh, sure, I had maintained a fairly sophisticated news website before. But it was not heavily trafficked. And we really had no idea what kind of market there was out there in the cyber-world for another newssite — even a fiercely independent one.
In the beginning, WorldNetDaily was primarily a place to go to get a picture of what was going on around the world through links. We always had a few original news stories and there was my daily column. Occasionally Elizabeth would write a column, too.
However, it didn’t take long for us to see that we were on to something with the simple WorldNetDaily formula. Almost immediately thousands of people discovered us. I don’t know how, other than to say that we got a lot of help from hundreds of Internet links and talk-radio hosts from coast to coast.
In fact, we have heard from hundreds of talk-show hosts — some big names and other local radio personalities — who say WorldNetDaily is an essential component of their show prep. (That’s “preparation” for you Salon.com readers.)
Anyway, within a month or two, we couldn’t help but notice we had thousands of people checking out WorldNetDaily every day. So, it inevitably became a bigger part of our lives each and every day for the next four years.
By the summer of 1997, we were adding other original columns (I think Geoff Metcalf may have been the first); Alan Keyes and David Hackworth joined shortly thereafter. We also began running news stories by Sarah Foster and a handful of other staff writers.
We’ve come a long way since then. We now have about 40 regular columnists, and two — Bill O’Reilly and David Limbaugh — have been syndicated after first appearing only in WorldNetDaily.com. Limbaugh has also gone on to become a best-selling author. We have seven full-time and three part-time editors responsible for maintaining a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week Internet newssite that literally millions depend upon as their main source of news. We have added more full-time reporting talent — including Washington bureau chief Paul Sperry.
As a result:
- WorldNetDaily has been voted the most popular website in the world going on 96 weeks;
- WorldNetDaily is consistently ranked as the “stickiest” newssite on the Internet — meaning readers average more time on it than any other;
- WorldNetDaily draws around 2 million “unique visitors” (meaning different people) every month;
- WorldNetDaily attracts between 30 million and 40 million pageviews per month;
- WorldNetDaily is consistently ranked first among all newssites in pageviews per visitor;
- WorldNetDaily is the leading independent newssite on the Internet — meaning it’s No. 1 among all news agencies specifically created for the Net;
- And WorldNetDaily is now quoted widely in the establishment press and on national television virtually every single day.
But, most of all, WorldNetDaily is leading an information revolution. I don’t think I exaggerate when I say this. It is read in 165 nations around the world daily. It is read by the most influential newsmakers and by those in the media who report on them. But it is also the primary source of news for a growing number of regular people, particularly in the United States.
Pretty amazing, considering the humble beginnings. But, I believe, this revolution is still in its infancy. I will predict — right here and now on the eve of our fourth anniversary — that WorldNetDaily will soon become the largest news force on the Internet. We’re going after CNN and MSNBC. We’re already competitive with the New York Times online and the Washington Post’s Internet edition. We believe we’ve only just begun.
And to make this challenge more interesting, I’ll even explain our secret right here in front of all the competition. WorldNetDaily is a hit because we do journalism the old-fashioned way. We believe the central role of a free press in a free society is to serve as a watchdog on government. We believe in investigative reporting into government waste, fraud, corruption and abuse. We believe we must be credible, relentless and fiercely independent to succeed. And we believe the truth will set all of us free.
That’s our trade secret. And, with God’s help, we’re going to take it to the top.
The buried secret of the U.S. Senate
Around the Web