Appeal launches Web upgrade
This Internet thing is a pretty big deal.
That may sound ridiculous, but newspapers have been slow to embrace the power right under their fingertips. Their Web sites have been afterthoughts to the print product or restricted for fear of giving away too much of the paper, and the Appeal-Democrat is no exception.
But today we're taking a bold step forward in our Internet operations with the launch of our newly designed site.
“I'm very excited about the launch of the new appealdemocrat.com,” said Publisher Don T. Bricker. “Both locally and at the corporate level, we are working hard to provide top-notch products in print and online in order to provide our readers news, information and entertainment of value to them in their daily lives.”
In the past few months, the Appeal-Democrat has stepped up its Internet efforts by launching blogs, updating content more frequently and partnering with Google for online searches.
Now we're hitting you with even more upgrades. Everything about the site has changed, from the colors to the navigation; even the address is new (we've dropped the hyphen on www.appealdemocrat.com but you can still access the site with the old address).
Some frequent complaints about the old site were that letters to the editor weren't offered (they are now) and that archive searches past seven days required a fee to access (all searches are now free).
A major emphasis of the new site is community interaction. Readers of the new appealdemocrat.com will be able to comment on and rate stories and photos, submit photos for our community galleries, and use our online forms to send us a variety of information.
“The new Web site further demonstrates our commitment to be the dominant local news source for our readers," Editor Len La Barth said. "Our new site is much more dynamic and offers greater interactivity between readers and the newspaper."
More enhancements are on the way, including a robust employment site powered by our partnership with Monster.com, the leading online job search site. Our new employment listings are set to debut April 2.
We welcome your feedback.
Send questions or comments to Internet Operations Director Courtney Lopez (clopez@appealdemocrat.com) or to La Barth (llbarth@appealdemocrat.com). He also invites you to post your comments on his blog at http://llabarth.freedomblogging.com.
