Smitty’s Notes is a web site and monthly e-newsletter that began 1997 with about a dozen subscribers to inform residents and newcomers of events happening in and around Winston-Salem.  Today, Smitty’s Notes and SmittysNotes.com rank among the most powerful information sources in Winston-Salem.

• Podcast – Jeff Smith of Smitty’s Notes (Forsyth Magazine)
•  Smitty’s Notes celebrates 25 years (WXII 12)
• 25 Years of Smitty’s Notes (Forsyth Woman)
• Smitty’s Notes celebrates its 25th Anniversary (Winston-Salem Chronicle)
• Smitty’s Notes at 25:  Jeff Smith was a social media influencer before the term existed (Winston-Salem Monthly)
• Triad Today – Smitty’s Notes at 25 (98.7 Simon)
• Smitty’s Notes celebrate 25 years in the community

When people in Winston-Salem and the rest of the Triad want the latest information about sporting and social events, restaurants and clubs, the arts community, downtown redevelopment, charitable fundraisers and a wide range of other community news and events, they go to SmittysNotes.com and read Smitty’s Notes.

Smitty’s Notes has an equally impressive followings and boasts more than 16,000 subscribers to the monthly e-newsletter.  While most media outlets – including print, television, radio and most online newsletters – are experiencing declines in consumer interest, readership of Smitty’s Notes continues to climb, with more than a 90  percent annual retention rate.

The local media has recognized the influence and impact that Jeff “Smitty” Smith—has on the Winston-Salem market. He has written for weekly arts and entertainment tabloids Triad Style, Go Triad and Relish and was on television live and on the internet weekly with WXII.com. Smitty is seen, heard, and read in virtually every advertising medium in the city. Jeff Smith was named by The Business Journal of the Triad as one of the “Most Influential People” in the Triad for 2005 and 2007.  Also, in 2007, Neill McNeill from WGHP’s FOX8 News profiled Smitty in his acclaimed “Newsmaker” series. In 2011, he received the “Duke Energy Public Service and Citizenship Award” from the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, 2011 Army War College National Security Seminar and Converge South Fellow.

Much of the success of Smitty’s Notes can be attributed to one thing:  keeping it real.  While many of the other online community calendars elsewhere in the nation have strayed from their mission by focusing on selling advertising and often allowing the news contents slide.  Not Smitty.  For him, news content always has been and always will be the driver behind Smitty’s Notes, with advertising viewed as an important means for allowing Smitty to offer his Web site and e-newsletter to the public for free.

Who knows what lies ahead?  Well, there’s one way to find out whatssup in Winston-Salem:  subscribe to Smitty’s Notes.