WrestlingNewsSource.com Celebrates 12 Years Online

WrestlingNewsSource.com is celebrating 12 years online!

I thought long and hard about what I would write to commemorate this milestone and while I will get to saying thanks, I really want to put the focus on the WNS community, because over the last several months we've really pushed to make our readers feel they are apart of something different and special.

To give context, the internet is going through strange period of change for many reasons and some of that change is being viewed as positive and some of that change is not so good, especially for smaller entities such as WNS which are at the mercy of big media corporations that are buying up other smaller independent wrestling websites as we speak to expand their reach and then there is Russia....There is a lot of uncertainty right now and I'd be lying if I didn't tell you it has got harder... unnecessarily harder in most cases.

When I started WNS, then Wrestling-Radio.com in 2006 almost all of the big wrestling "go to" sites were independent, that can't be said anymore and that won't be changing anytime soon. There are of course some advantages to selling to a big corp, but also some dangers. There was much more of an open playing field with regard to self-promotion, that's vanishing at an alarming rate and Facebook has a lot to answer for in that regard. Bring back MySpace bulletins!

Going forward I wouldn't rule out WNS being offered deal from a media corporation, and I'll be honest offers have been on the table at over the years, but it would be one we'd have to think long and hard about. Financial incentives aside there is something rather special about being at the helm of something that is an extension of a love and passion, one not easy to leave or give up on for many reasons.

For us, it is no longer about competing with the internet wrestling community in the traditional sense, and to be frank we never had that aggressive mindset, but rather we continue to make WNS the best place it can be for those that visit.

We recently launched our community rankings features which aim is to reward our most loyal readers with the recognition they deserve and to improve our commentary system which is a big part of our community alongside our social media. We are working hard to weed out hate speech, trolls, and "generally unkind users"  ;) , another struggle when you don't allow 3rd party moderation is you take on board the less favorable side of running a website.

We have always opted for our own in-house features, built and coded by one of the best coders I know K Aeronwyn Fairchild, the lesser known entity in the project, but as co-founder she has been by my side for the best part of 13+ years, she gave me a break with my first website and then we launched Wrestling-Radio.com to better serve the wrestling radio show broadcasters, evolving into a more mainstream news and coverage website several years later.

When I started, podcasting was in its infancy, Myspace was a key promotional tool and Facebook/Twitter wasn't even in the picture.In 2018 we should be celebrating how far social media has come, but as mentioned it has got much harder to effectively use these platforms, but we'll persist but encourage you to look beyond social media and start directly supporting your independent websites!

I'm lucky to have such a great following and work with some talented and fun people. I like everybody who works for WNS has put in a lot of time and sacrificed so much at times, and like any venture we have had some "right time" moments and luck. But never be in any doubt, we're always working hard to ensure you have fun and engaging experience across all our platforms.

As I reflect on the last 12 years, I have learned so much and made some great friends and have had the most loyal fanbase in the IWC. It is at times scary how much influence and reach I yield and the pressure to get it right is paramount.

love that I can create debate and discussion, I can inform and entertain while sharing also sharing other aspects of my life with many people the world over. Its a special privilege.

WNS will continue to evolve. I will continue to listen and have fun along the way. I have always said that if it ends tomorrow, I achieved something special. That something is very hard to define, but something I will always cherish and I hope you enjoy being a part of.

THANK YOU for loyal support over the last 12 years.

Happy Birthday WNS!

Ben Jordan Kerin 

Director of WrestlingNewsSource.com
ben@wrestlingnewssource.com