The Citizen Websites Story
We’ve been building online portals for business since 2007.
It all started as Online-Copywriter.com. In 2008, we incorporated as Goodtree & Co., Inc.
In 2009, we launched CaryCitizen, a hyperlocal news site. CaryCitizen is a 2011 Knight Foundation Fellow and has grown to a monthly circulation of more than 60,000.
In response to the success of CaryCitizen, our web design and commercial photography businesses began to take off. Earlier this year, we launched FotoHal. Now, our web work has its own home with Citizen Websites.
About the Founder

Hal Goodtree spent 20 years as a commercial television producer for Benton & Bowles, the National Football League and The New York Times. He retired from television in 2006 to pursue a new career as an internet writer.
Hal’s work has been awarded a 1996 Commercial Emmy®, a 1998 Caples for his work with James Earl Jones and a 2002 Cannes Ad Lion.
He lives in Cary, North Carolina with his wife and two daughters. In his spare time, Hal is a musician and founding member of A Fifth of Blues.