The next edition of Caerphilly Observer, out on September 18, will mark 16 months in print and what a 16 months it has been.

Caerphilly Observer began life as an online only publication in 2009 and since then we have grown to reach thousands of readers.

Each fortnight we print 10,000 copies of the newspaper, which is distributed to around 80 outlets across Caerphilly County Borough.

Last month our website attracted a record 66,262 unique visitors generating almost 170,000 page impressions – a huge achievement of which we are rightly proud.

In May last year we successfully applied for a grant through the council’s rural development programme, Caerffili Cwm a Mynydd. The grant allowed us to get this newspaper started and without the help of the council’s Phill Loveless, this would not have been possible.

Questions were asked by the wider media industry at the time on whether we could legitimately hold the council to account – given that it helped us get started.

Our coverage of the council has proven that we are not afraid to ask the tough questions.

The judges at this year’s Newspaper Awards agreed and highly commended this publication as came runner-up in the Printed Innovation of the Year Category.

Their citation read: “Quality journalism driven by a real passion to represent its area and hold power to scrutiny.”

Local politicians of all parties have told us how much they value this scrutiny and to be recognised by industry peers was a very proud moment for us.

We were also very proud when we were named as a finalist in the 2013 Caerphilly Business Forum Awards.

Another highlight was a letter from Buckingham Palace on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, who wished us well in the run-up to our first print anniversary in May. This followed her visit to the county borough.

Reporter Gareth Hill joins the Caerphilly Observer team.

In October last year we moved into offices at Caerphilly Business Park and in February we took on reporter Gareth Hill.

We took another huge step forward in June when we took on our first full-time sales executive Neil Jenkins.

Together with media consultant Jan Withers and her husband Barry, who have both been instrumental in helping set up the print edition, we now have a very strong team going into the future to make Caerphilly Observer the newspaper and website Caerphilly County Borough deserves.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing though. There have been a few bumps in the road and a few times where deadlines have almost been missed, but on the whole, we haven’t done too badly.

Images accompanying this article are copyright Caerphilly Observer.