This website -- www.myKawartha.com -- reflects the events and life within Peterborough, the City of Kawartha Lakes and Brock Township, municipalities covered by community newspapers Peterborough This Week, Kawartha Lakes This Week and the Brock Citizen. Started as a community news site, it has grown to include calendars, photo galleries, video galleries and much more. If you need to find out what is happening in central Ontario, this is the place to find out.

History

Few times in Peterborough history has the need for immediate news and information been as heightened as it was the morning of July 15, 2004. With the city's downtown core and many of its neigbourhoods submerged under several feet of water, thousands of residents, both those directly affected and the simply curious, displayed an insatiable need for updates regarding emergency measures put in place by the City. While radio did its typically efficient job of providing information, a new kid on the block emerged as an excellent source of that same information. On that morning, and over the hectic days that followed, www.myKawartha.com really came into its own as a highly credible, up-to-the-minute source of updated news information.

"We heard later from many people how much of a lifeline that was for them during the early days of the flood," recalls then managing editor Paul Rellinger.

"More than that, it really opened our eyes to the power of the web in terms of our responsibility, to our readers and clients, to be as current as possible. Our online coverage of the flood really was a benchmark in the terms of where it is today."

The evolution of www.myKawartha.com can be traced back to the spring of 2000 when www.peterboroughthisweek.com was launched. While rudimentary compared to developments since, the website offered Internet users an online version of their community newspaper, complete with searchable classifieds, death notices, shopping coupons, and the ability to send letters to the editor online. By November of that same year, www.peterboroughthisweek.com had recorded one million visitors.

Turn the clock forward to the summer of 2005 and the evolution of Torstar Digital, a division of Metroland's parent company Torstar. With its array of website developers, Torstar Digitial went to work developing a common website posting platform for Metroland newspapers. Less than a year later, TOPS (Torstar Open Publishing System) and its accompanying website design, was a reality with the Kawartha Division, the first Metroland newspaper group to roll-out the new-look site at www.myKawartha.com

Since that time, considerable investments have been made into www.myKawartha.com, the result being regularly updated news (print, photo and video format), classifieds, shopping information and Goldbook listings, to name but a few features, just a mouse click away, be you at home, at work or on vacation and wanting to stay in touch with home. But we're not done there. Far from it as new website features and capabilities are in the works and imminent.

The flood waters of July 2004 have long receded but the ripple effect has proven very beneficial for Peterborough, City of Kawartha Lakes and Brock Township residents who need to know and need to know now. "This is mykawartha.com" is the rallying cry in all three municipalities. It's been an exciting ride but the best is yet to come.