Sun closure: We were doing so well on the web

It was never supposed to end this way.

Sure, the print version of the Bermuda Sun was eventually going to go the way of dodo birds — the demographics were against us as every day one of our print readers died and new digital users were born.

So I was completely shocked to learn that a decision had been made not only to close down the paper, but also to turn off the website.

The Sun had made tremendous strides over the past nine months. We went from being the 51st- ranked website in Bermuda to #5 on the Alexa.com rankings — only behind the worldwide giants of Google, Yahoo, Facebook and YouTube.

Our readership on the web was up 46 per cent year-on-year according to Google Analytics, with 44,000 unique users in Bermuda.

Our Facebook presence had grown at a rapid pace — from 4,600 Likes to nearly 14,000 since October, 2013.

But now I will be on a job hunt, along with my colleagues.

I’ve worked with a lot of great journalists over the years and especially the two Jameses — Whittaker and Burton.

The laughter we have shared — singing “Simon Jones” in the form of a Nahki wells chant or talking about bacon and KFC with Leah Furbert.

I will miss those moments.

Laura Bell will forever be my “work wife”, even though she left the Sun a decade ago.

Long gone are the Thursday evening meals at Portofino, but they are still fondly remembered.

I’ve appreciated the lessons learned form both of my editors, Tom Vesey and Tony McWilliam, and from deputy editors Meredith Ebbin, Bob Amesse and Ahmed ElAmin.

But most of all, I’ve appreciated the attitude of my co-workers, who helped make this such a great place to show up every day, share a laugh but still work hard enough to put out a quality product that would hopefully make Bermuda a better place.