Many years ago, in March of 2013, the idea of starting this website was born. It was just another Sunday afternoon when I came upon a large building fire that destroyed a candle warehouse in Dunedin. I began to photograph and record a video of the fire and, later that day posted it on my personal YouTube account. The posting generated media interest along with that of the first responders that worked the incident that day.
The name IONTB, Eye On Tampa Bay, was created, and a logo was designed. Originally it was going to be a small site to document a small number of incidents highlighting the tireless work being done by our first responders in the Tampa Bay Area. Photos free of watermarks have always been provided to our local first responders and public safety agencies in the area. It was hopeful that, occasionally, video and/or photos could be sold to media outlets in the area. IONTB is growing rapidly now, with over 199,000 Facebook followers. IONTB redesigned its website and moved it to a new hosting company in 2022.
On Facebook alone, IONTB has a monthly viewership between 36 and 48 million, with post engagements nearing 2 million per month. IONTB has over 8,100 followers on Twitter and is growing its Instagram presence to nearly 15,200. We also have approximately 2,800 YouTube subscribers.
This site is not a huge operation but rather run by a staff of one with occasional help from a few other bloggers in the area. It is not unusual to receive large amounts of messages daily, and all possible attempts are made to respond in a timely manner.
It is the contributions of the followers that have allowed the endeavor to flourish. The delivery of news needs to morph into more consumer-driven content, not content that people are forced to endure when they wait for the 45-second segment somewhere during the 6 PM broadcast.
This endeavor has proven that most people do not want to wait 3 hours to go home and tune in at 5 or 6 PM to watch the news. Our lives have changed, and social media has antiquated the way news is delivered.
Please consider helping to sustain IONTB by donating below or at Paypal.