Housing Wire began with a simple story covering a GMAC-RFC partnership with FNIS one year ago today. Since then, I’ve spent the last year covering a market I truly am passionate about, writing more than 1,600 different stories in the process. Although I’ve never marketed HW, the number of readers — well over two million in 2007 so far — has been been stunning. I’ve mentioned recently that some changes are coming to HW — there are two. First, I’ve been redesigning the layout of the Web site to better serve the needs of readers. Second, I’m planning to accept paid advertising in 2008, in response to numerous requests, to replace some of the more indirect ads you now see on the site. There is clearly so much more out there that isn’t yet being written about, which is a motivating factor here. So too are the volume of emails I receive daily — from Wall Street analysts, hedge fund managers, investors, servicing execs, default managers, attorneys, even economists and regulators — that make it clear that HW plays a significant role in the daily business of many, who have come to rely on the balanced news and well-grounded analysis that I’d like to think defines the coverage here. Why pursue ad revenue? I’m committed to HW providing completely free content, for one; and I want to do even more here than I already have. More information will be available shortly — in the meantime, feel free to shoot an email to [email protected] if you’d like some advance details on advertising, or just want to tell me what you think.