Golly we're famous...Here's a reprint out of
This is the story about a weird little, virtually unknown, newspaper on the Web, called the Round Top Register (www.roundtop.com), where fact and fiction collide, and the print circulation and hits continue to grow rapidly.
The full story of this eclectic newspaper and it's success on the Web and in print can be found in an upcoming issue of Editor & Publisher magazine.
Chris Travis, one of Round Top, Texas' 81 residents, and the creator and sole employee of the Register, got into an accident a few years ago and decided to toy around with the Internet. He managed to run up the town's largest phone bill teaching himself HTML and how to put a Web page together.
The Register started at 12 pages, then jumped to 20 then to 24 pages because advertisers couldn't get enough of Travis' warped sense of humor - and for that matter, neither could his readership.
So, he decided to put his eclectic creation on the Web. It now gets 500 hits a day and doesn't show any signs of slowing down in print or in hits.
The townsfolk, described by Travis as "artsy fartsy community," love the paper. But so do the major media outfits in Texas. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has written about the Register, a popular drive-time radio show and Dallas television station also interviewed Travis about his little gem in a sea of diamonds.
You can pick up one of the 18,000 copies distributed if you live in the region between Houston and Austin - but better hurry, it's a popular little newspaper and disappears fast.
So what keeps the readership so strong and the advertising dollars rolling in?
Maybe it's the 190 year old columnist, Uncle Sack. As told by Travis, he met him at Cummins Creek and next thing he knew, he was receiving columns in the mail every week. He says, he's just a guy who has been married five times and never got around to dying.
However, now, in his old age, he's beginning to get a little senile and talks crazy - which makes him all that much popular. He now believes computers are alive.
Well, can you blame him? If I was born in 1841, I'd believe they were alive too.
Maybe it was the coveted interview with Santa that keeps readers interested. As Travis tells is, Santa was thinking of relocating North Pole Enterprises to Nirvana, Avalon or Round Top, and Travis, as any good editor would do, did a hard-nosed interview asking if he would make any significant cultural changes.
Whatever the case, you can't ignore the Register. Over 200 people like the paper so much, they get it delivered at $5 a year (four issues), only $3 if you're lucky enough to live in Round Top.
If you think he's only got porn shops and 900-numbers as advertisers - think again. The Register sports advertising from shi-shi bed and breakfasts, upscale real estate agencies and even the very large Round Top Farm & Ranch.
However, for all its fun and games, there's a serious side to this charmer of a newspaper. Legit interviews with real elderly Round Top residents uncover interesting and compelling stories of yesteryear - complete with photos of women in their prime in stylish '40s bathing suits.
Travis wants to take it in a more literary direction as well and attract an educated audience like Round Top's residents.
If you travel to Round Top and have lunch with Travis at the local coffee shop, you might want to ask him if what he's telling you is the truth and nothing but the truth.
However, his response will probably be one of the newspaper's slogans, which change each issue, "And after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in masquerade." -- Lord Byron.
He believes newspapers should look at what's neat about human beings, not just what's not so neat - which is probably why his newspaper and Web site does so well...
For a weird little newspaper.
