Havana Times: We’ve Made it to Year Two!

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Oct.  23— We’ve made it to year two of Havana Times, and the online publication has continued to grow both in audience and contributors.

Without any publicity effort, relying on word of mouth and the search engines, the site now occupies an important space in the digital press on Cuba, providing a voice to numerous individuals who care about the island and its future.

Despite the publication now being edited from abroad, plus the communication problems faced by most of the Cuban writers, we have been able to keep pace and actually expand the amount of articles and photos presented.

Havana Times remains visible for the relatively small segment of the population in Cuba that has Internet, as the censors have not classified us as part of the dissident blogger world that gets their sites blocked. E-mail has also proven a good way for readers on the island without Internet to receive our articles and even the posted comments.

• Havana Times: The First Anniversary

In recent months our readership figures include a modest average of 1,600 visits and 4,000 page views per day in English, and 350 visits and 750 page views in Spanish, though the figures have been considerably higher in recent weeks.

We’d like to put out an invitation to Cubans and readers from other countries to join in the debate on different issues regarding Cuba by commenting on articles presented on the website. We do moderate the posts, but only to cull out personal attacks or serious unsubstantiated accusations.