Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Standard-Examiner Touts its Two (Count 'Em, 2) Websites

Added WCF bonus: Yesterday's news today!

Why it seems like only yesterday that we, the cyber denizens of Weber County Forum, were involved in a thorough discussion of the Standard-Examiner, and the upgrades our home town newspaper has recently made to its StandardNet Live (free) and Digital Edition (paid subscription) websites. Hmmm... actually the discussion was the day BEFORE yesterday -- now that we think about it.

And now, (right on cue) here comes Std-Ex Editor Dave Greiling this morning, picking up on our earlier conversation and offering more fodder for discussion of the Std-Ex's online offerings, with this morning's most informative and timely "Behind the Headlines" column:
Web site changes a constant in changing business
Editor Greiling presents one danged fine nuts and bolts explanation of the differences between the two websites, and goes on to discuss the reasoning and rationale of newspaper management in offering these two distinctly different web products.

Mr. Greiling also gets into specifics as to the goal of the recent StandardNET site revamp. These are the objects the in-house programmer gnomes sought to achieve:
• Simplify, to make it easier to find items such as story comments, videos and links;
• Improve the visual impact and presentation; and
• Make the site faster.
For the most part, we think the Std-Ex has been successful in this endeavor. In our opinion the new site is far more straightforward and streamlined than the old one. It loads faster too, now that the "programmer gnomes" have seemingly prevailed over the "advertiser gnomes," and eliminated much of the user system resource unfriendly clutter from StandardNET pages. The only thing it seems to be lacking at this point... regular red meat content.

We also got a real kick out of this Mark Shenefelt comment:
Shenefelt said the reaction to the changes has been generally positive. He’s particularly pleased with the increased interactivity he sees with Web visitors.
Traffic is also up more than 60 percent since the redesign.
“There are great conversations on some of our stories. I’ve noticed a lot of new regulars, commenting daily and posting on more topics.”
It appears these heretofore stodgy print media newspapermen are just now learning the fundamental principle of the webosphere. If you make your most interesting material freely available online... and allow your readers to offer their own interactive comments, you'll find yourself well on your way to building a loyal and reliable online reader community.

And while we're cherry picking paragraphs, we'll focus on this article segment, which permits us to launch into another WCF-patented neck-snapping segue:
Our goal is to post the current day’s digital edition by 6 a.m. There are some technical bugs that we’re working through that have delayed posting on several days and caused some missing pages.
Yes, gentle readers, here are the two Weber County Forum-topical articles (missing pages) which the Std-Ex neglected to post in yesterday's StandardNet or Digital Edition versions. We link these especially for you, Gentle Reader Moroni McConkie:
Windsor demolition still on hold
Committee golf course suggestions in last stages
We were delighted to find these above two articles added (however belatedly) to the Std-Ex's Digital Edition database this morning, if only because they provide archival continuity.

The floor is open for reader comments. What's on your minds this Saturday morning?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

We all know Godfrey wants to turn the Golf Course over to Chris Peterson or an entity controlled by him. We all know what the golf course committee recommendations will be, because they were given to the committee by Godfrey at the beginning, and were reinforced by Godfrey as he participated in the committee meetings.

The only thing new is now some of the committee members are going to Baltimore on a junket to provide con job points for this final recommendation.

On the other subject, please, somebody keep us posted on any city council meetings involving the Windsor or indeed, on the golf course.

Anonymous said...

Also, regarding these articles, here are tomorrows headlines.

Golf Committee Still Meeting
Windsor Still in Limbo
Swallows Still Return to Capistrano
Water Still Flows Downhill
Winter Still Colder than Summer
Farmers Still Plant Crops in Spring

You get the idea.

RudiZink said...

Brilliant, Danny!

A hit... a palpable hit!

Touche'

Anonymous said...

Danny:

The SE regularly prints the agendas for upcoming city council meetings. Or you can go onto the city council website and have their PR person email you an agenda of upcoming meetings regularly. Signing up to get the agendas will also get you sent, via email, the City Council newsletter.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Curm, but as Monk would say, here's the thing.

I don't want to check the council page weekly, and I don't want any more regular emails.

I do however read this blog fairly regularly. So when you find out, let us know.

Thank you.

And Rudi, I don't often say it, but I quite often feel the same way about your articles and commentaries (as well as those of others here.)

Anonymous said...

As to the Windsor -

I've said it before - tear the old piece of shit down! It was junk when it was built and it is junk now.

This from a dyed in the wool, and active, preservationist.

Anonymous said...

bill c
i like you would be very interested in knowing what happened to kim wallace. good man short tenure. doesnt make sense.
maybe some one on the city council could enlighten us.
if anyone knows please elaborate.

Anonymous said...

Ozboy,

Why don't you call up Schewbke, representing yourself as a preservationist, a wheeler dealer, someone knowledgeable about the Windsor, and someone with a useful angle, and get him to interview you?

If he did a whole article on the absurd Sue Wilkerson's vacuous opinion on the subject, who knows, he might do one on a useful opinion - yours. I know who you are IRL anyway, but you don't have to tell him.

He could say no, but remember, nothing ventured . . .

Anonymous said...

danny

Schwepke knows who I am as well - it really isn't any secret. He already "interviewed" me on the Windsor subject and reported on it in an earlier article.

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