Back then, my idea for the site came from a desire to create a more level playing field for Celtic bloggers versus traditional news media.
Agenda or not, many sports writers in the mainstream media seem more interested in selling eyeballs to advertisers than investigating and reporting real news.
Whatever you think of the MSM, it still influences many a fan’s view on the performance of their club and the state of Scottish Football.
At the same time, there are many good football bloggers (so-called ‘Internet Bampots’), who do investigate, who do report on real issues, and who do write passionately about their team and the sport in general – but need help getting their content in front of other fans.
Whilst some news aggregation sites already exist that gather content from different sources on a specific topic, as a football fan I think they feel a bit dull.
I wanted to create the one place where Celtic fans could go for all their news and a richer experience – including photos, videos, fixtures, player profiles and more.
And so, a very rough looking Celticnewsnow.com was born one weekend in October 2010.
Fast forward to the end of 2015, we now have the website, daily email newsletter, popular Facebook and Twitter accounts, and the new app – all of which are helping to bring more readers to independent Celtic bloggers.
In fact, since launch, news stories on Celticnewsnow.com have been read 52 MILLION times (51,847,404 at the time of writing).
Launching the free Celtic News Now app in August was a major milestone. Thanks to help from many Celtic fans who promoted the launch on their blogs and social media, the app reached the top 20 of the Sports category on the UK’s iOS and Android app charts during this period, and garnered 325 five star reviews.
Today – New Year’s Day 2016 – the app has passed 30,000 users, which feels amazing. Thank you to everyone who has downloaded the app, written a review, and shared the link with friends and family!
We have lots of ideas for new developments in 2016, including a feature to help promote the growing army of Celtic fan podcasts.
Did you know? The Celtic Underground is football’s longest running podcast, and will be celebrating 10 years in 2016!
I’d love to get your feedback on the app – positive and negative – and any ideas you have for new features.
Happy New Year!
HH
David
