ACC Public Web site surpasses 1M visits

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Russell Wicke
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (ACCNS) --  Air Combat Command's public Web site, www.acc.af.mil, reached a milestone in January when it logged one million visits.

The Web site, which went active in January 2006 as part of the Air Force Public Web initiative, now averages nearly 2,000 unique visits daily.

As of September 2007, all 27 ACC wing Web sites completed migration to AFPW, and are centrally hosted with the rest of the Air Force.

This new approach allowed ACC to move away from traditional means of communication - newspapers - to digital communications, said retired Master Sgt. Mark Haviland, manager of ACC's newspaper transitions to the Internet.

Throughout 2007, ACC bases terminated production of base newspapers because of a 25-percent manning reduction in Public Affairs offices. Additionally, evidence revealed a steady decline in readership for all newspaper markets, added Sergeant Haviland.

"We based our decision to migrate on media consumption polls available through Gallop, Pew and Nielson," he said. "That poll data made it clear that newspaper consumption across the nation was in decline. Web-based news delivery allowed us to continue our mission while accounting for manpower reductions.

According to ACC officials, this research led leadership to conclude the Web was the medium of choice for communication to the command's 200,000 active-duty, civilian, family and retiree audience.

"The 1 million-visit milestone confirmed this concept of the Web's advantage over traditional mediums," said Sergeant Haviland.

In fact, other ACC wing sites have surpassed the command's site in individual visits.

Yet most bases still have access to a similar form of base newspapers. Local publishers weren't willing to lose the advertisement revenue they received from military publications. This resulted in the civilian publishers taking over the entire newspaper production process. ACC officials said most publishers welcome content recommendation which is sent out from the command. Additionally, publishers make use of articles from ACC's wing Web sites.

The AFPW program was a solution to the Air Force's Web dilemma: hundreds of old, independent sites which had numerous policy violations. Many sites were vulnerable to hacking and illegal posting of fraudulent information, said Tech. Sgt. Stacy Simons, Air Force News Agency AFPW NCO in charge. In addition, the sites varied widely in appearance and content. These issues were highlighted by an audit from the Defense Department Inspector General in November 2001.

According to Sergeant Simon, the AFPW program was designed to transfer individual Air Force base Web sites to central sites as extensions of Air Force Link. Yet each wing retained independent management of their sites. This resulted in several advantages.

Public Affairs offices around the Air Force are responsible for updating public sites, yet that career specialty didn't include Web expertise. AFPW enables reduced manpower demands on the Internet posting and requires less Web knowledge to operate said Sergeant Simon. This allows PA Airmen more time to focus on Web content, security and policy review, she said. Other security benefits came from the new sites being centrally hosted, reducing the risk of hacking.

"It also offers the same look and feel as Air Force Link," added Sergeant Simon. "It enables better continuity and easier management." Additionally Airmen who change duty stations no longer need to become familiar with a different base Web site - all of them feature the same basic structure.