Three Years of BlogsNH

We're three years old! Okay, so we're three years and a few months old. But let's reflect a bit on where we came from and where we're going.

In May 2006, we started BlogsNH. The site began when Mark Travis (formerly the director of product development at the Monitor, now the publisher of the Valley News) asked Monitor staffer Clay McCuistion to help start a community blogging site. McCuistion had blogged on his own since 2002, so he was excited to bring that knowledge to the paper.

BlogsNH broke ground in many areas for the Monitor. It was our first site to feature reader comments. Those have since grown to play a big role on concordmonitor.com. It was our first site built with Drupal, an open-source web development platform. We've used Drupal on several projects subsequently. And overall, it helped define a vision of community produced and oriented content that we continue to build upon.

Many hands have helped over the years. Mark was the person who actually made the site happen. Clay communicated with would-be bloggers and watched over their creations. Former editor Mike Pride was the first Monitor staffer to seriously blog (and his work predated BlogsNH by a year). Monitor online staff, including Margo Bowie and Todd Perkins, have handled the technical aspects brilliantly. And Monitor Publisher Geordie Wilson has been an erstwhile supporter.

The site has continued to grow, develop and surprise. Thanks to everyone inside and outside the Monitor who helped it happen.