Thank you for making us No. 1; er, No. 29,936...

One day ago, I was perfectly satisfied in my lack of familiarity with a website that claims to be "The Global Leader in Analytics."

One day ago, I was also equally content in my lack of knowledge of the phrase "Global Leader in Analytics."

But, as John Lennon might say, That was Yesterday.

A link to the website for Alexa Internet (www.alexa.com) was emailed to me by a friend who knows a little something about the Internet. Probably more than I do, but that's not saying all that much.

Alexa Internet is an Amazon.com company. According to its website, "Alexa is the leading provider of free, global web metrics. Search Alexa to discover the most successful sites on the web by keyword, category, or country."

According to Alexa.com, in the past three months, The Highland County Press website (www.highlandcountypress.com) has enjoyed an online readership percentage increase by roughly 100 percent.

Alexa also has our website ranked as one of the most popular media websites in Highland County and more popular than the majority of all media websites in surrounding counties.

But don't take my word for it. You can go to www.alexa.com and search area media websites for yourself.

The HCP, Alexa says, ranks as the 29,936th most populate website in the United States. That might not impress you – until you consider that the next closest local media website is almost 40,000 leagues under us. (There's got to be a Jules Verne joke in that previous sentence.)

We're not celebrating being the 29,936th most popular website in America. Frankly, we're surprised that Google and Facebook outpaced us in this ranking.

However, it is a rather nice feeling to be ranked as this area's most visited website.

This is what Alexa.com has to say about Highland County's only locally owned and operated newspaper:

Statistics Summary for highlandcountypress.com

Highlandcountypress.com is ranked No. 214,302 in the world. This site has a relatively good traffic rank in the city of Cincinnati (No. 965). Almost all the site's visitors are in the United States, where it has attained a traffic rank of 29,936. The time-on-site percentage is up 31 percent (12:29) over the past month and up 17 percent (9:48) over the past three months.

Here is the link: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/highlandcountypress.com#

You can search other websites at www.alexa.com for comparisons. The data make for interesting reading.

In all honesty, though, these online tracking services are all well and good, but they're not what we're about.

Unlike some corporate-controlled media, we make our decisions based on the best interests of our readers and advertisers; or, if you will, advertisers and readers. Both are of equal importance to the business. Without readers, there will be no advertisers. Without advertisers, there will be no readers.

Unlike some corporate-controlled media, The Highland County Press prefers to do business without contractual agreements or notarized documents signed in blood.

Why would we demand a contract? We trust our advertisers.

The other day, a business owner shared her latest contract information with a corporate-controlled publication.

The business owner had asked me for a counter-offer – even though her rates with The Highland County Press have not increase in more than three years.

There was no counter-offer. But I did ask these two pertinent – and obvious – questions:

• Why do you think the corporate media conglomerate is willing to give you a lowball rate?

• And, what do you think that rate would be if Highland County did not have a locally owned  – and competitive – newspaper?

(Every business owner in the county knows the answers to both questions.)

The Highland County Press is, indeed, a rare commodity in 2012 America.

In today's era of corporate-controlled clusters of regional newspapers that often share the same stories on their so-called "local" front pages, we are more than content to do our best to go against the national trends.

In Highland and surrounding counties there are less than five locally owned and operated newspapers. We are happy to be one of them. And we are happy that our friends at The Clermont Sun and The Brown County Press are among that small group of locally owned publications. There aren't that many of us left!

So, when we put things in context – such as the Alexa.com online rankings, the bottom line is this: We are here to provide community news and profitable marketing plans for area readers and businesses. What we do is not an easy task, as those who may try to imitate us have discovered.

We do it to the best of our ability, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

As our own online data service can attest, www.highlandcountypress.com has been publishing local news, sports, commentary, public service announcements and who knows what, for more than 1,000 consecutive days.

We thank all of you for supporting us in these first three years.

From our classified advertisers to our paid subscribers (it's only $10 a year!), to the Highland County Board of Realtors and everyone else, please know that we appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve our community.

Year No. 4 started this month. (That reminds me, there's work to be done!)

Thanks, Alexa. Drinks on me.

Rory Ryan is publisher of Highland County's most popular website – due to the efforts of people much smarter than he is.