Six newspapers preparing for website launches!
It’s been a busy month in the digital director’s chair.
Most of my time has been spent preparing for the launch of new websites for the White Salmon Enterprise, NW Boomer and Senior News, Sunnyside Daily Sun News, Omak Chronicle, Idaho County Free Press and Polk County Itemizer-Observer. All of the websites are being built at one time, and when they are ready to go we should be able to launch one a week over six weeks later this summer or early this fall.
Eagle Newspapers also has partnered with AdPay for a revamp of our online classifieds system. When completed it will be easy for customers to place their ads in one paper and have their ad viewable by web users all across the region. Instead of just covering one small area, each paper’s classifieds will now have a much bigger footprint, hence the name of the new classifieds site, Big Foot Classifieds.
In just a few short months our web presence will look significantly different across the board. The sites will be easier to navigate than the current versions and will offer each property the flexibility to keep them as simple as they want or get into more advanced uses, such as e-mail newsletters, blogs, listings for restaurants, bands and local events, live news updates and better integration with Facebook, Twitter and social media.
Last month staff members on the six properties awaiting launch underwent training on the basics of updating content in the websites. In the coming weeks as more properties get closer to launch, additional training opportunities will be scheduled to dive deeper into how the sites work.
Ben McCarty
