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VIEWPOINT: Journal polishing Web site to deliver your news better |
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By Yvonne D. Hawkins
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Tuesday, 29 May 2007 |
Since everybody loves insider information, here’s a tip.
The next wave of improvements to the Business Journal’s Web site will hit on June 6.
There. You have it straight from the horse’s mouth.
I realize that this revelation might not make you spit out your piping-hot, morning mocha as you sip from your favorite mug and then scream: “Holy, Mabel! Read this!” However, I urge you to use extreme caution during such delicate moments as this.
It’s true. Beginning with our next news cycle, Business Journal readers who visit www.siouxfallsbusiness
journal.com will be treated to what we hope will be pleasant surprises.
Leading the pack is an initiative to offer more free content to our readers.
Currently, we sort of tease readers with snippets of our enterprise and news stories as well as other features that also appear each week in the journal’s print version.
Typically, readers will be viewing stories on their computer monitors and then – BAM! They’re hit with a screen that carries a message saying: “Our online content is available to subscribers only.”
Well, that won’t happen as much anymore.
Much of the journal’s valuable content will remain available only to paid subscribers, but those who are fans of our little publication but who aren’t yet subscribers can get some stories and sections for free.
Already, we’ve been providing several free news updates daily about happenings in the area’s business community.
Now, we’ll also offer free access to several other sections – Profiles, LeisureSuits, Movers & Shakers and Calendar.
You’ll be able to find those sections clustered toward the top of our site’s home page.
In addition, readers also will receive a larger chunk of our weekly Page One stories as well as longtime reporter Rob Swenson’s Business Buzz column before they receive our lovely please-subscribe message.
Swenson – an award-winning, more-than-25-year veteran of journalism – arguably produces the most insightful collection of perspectives and updates available about Sioux Falls businesses.
In order to help online readers quickly spot Business Buzz, we’ll anchor Swenson’s column logo on the home page.
And as another effort to help readers better manage our Web site, we’re rearranging our lefthand navigation column. You know, that’s the spot where you can click on links that take you to different sections of our Web site.
Over the years, as we’ve revised and improved the publication, we’ve unfortunately allowed some of our Web links to become outdated. So we’re dusting off the cobwebs, so to speak, and re-sorting the links to better correspond with how content is grouped within the print version.
Don’t worry, the navigation column won’t look much different. But hopefully, it’ll make better sense.
No one knows better than business folks how important it is to deliver information to customers quickly, accurately and efficiently – and to use every piece of technology available to make it happen.
From e-commerce to e-mails, businesses are embracing the digital revolution, and so are we.
Hopefully, these improvements will help us to better deliver to you the information you need. |