Marlea Hanson poses for a portrait in downtown Toledo on Wednesday afternoon. Hanson, a former columnist for the Town Crier, began the blog The Other Toledo in February as an online location to share the town's events and news.
Marlea Hanson poses for a portrait in downtown Toledo on Wednesday afternoon. Hanson, a former columnist for the Town Crier, began the blog The Other Toledo in February as an online location to share the town's events and news.
Marlea Hanson stands along Cowlitz Street in downtown Toledo on Wednesday afternoon. Hanson, a former columnist for the Town Crier, began the blog The Other Toledo in February as an online location to share the town's events and news.
Marlea Hanson talks about her how she has parlayed her experience as a former columnist for the Town Crier into her new blog, The Other Toledo, while at lunch in downtown Toledo on Wednesday afternoon.
Marlea Hanson was running out of room in the newspaper for all the happenings in Toledo, so she took to the Internet.
In February, Hanson, a former Town Crier columnist, launched a daily blog named The Other Toledo. It can be found at www.theothertoledo.com. It details the community’s news and events.
“It seemed there’s a lot more going on, so it outgrew the bounds of somebody posting once a week,” Hanson said.
Posts include calendars of events, details about an upcoming speaker at the Toledo Community Library and information about a meeting with ToledoTel, CenturyLink and the Winlock community about its slow Internet.
And all the information is in one convenient place.
Hanson said she gets much of her information via emails from a contact list she’s built up during the past couple years at the Town Crier.
Hanson, who is now retired, said it also makes sense to provide the information online since ToledoTel has hooked the entire town up with high speed Internet.
The community has been supportive of her endeavor, she said.
Hanson moved to Toledo in 2012 and says she couldn’t have landed in a better place.
“I just find this a nice, cohesive, supportive family,” Hanson said about Toledo.
And it’s a community with a lot going on, she said, noting she hasn’t struggled for content for the blog.
Hanson uses the website hosting site Weebly, which she loves, noting it is great for starters.
She plans to set up a form on the site for readers to subscribe to a regular e-newsletter.
“Overwhelmingly people have asked to just have it delivered via email,” she said.
Along with local readership, Toledo alumni and out-of-area relatives of Toledo residents also read the blog.
Prior to her time with the Town Crier, Hanson said she didn’t write much, but believes she has spent her life collecting things to write about. She sporadically writes on a few other blogs.
Before moving to Toledo, Hanson lived in the Puget Sound area and ran a construction support business.
