The new and much improved Portage County Gazette website debuted to the public Sunday, July 1, one day earlier than we promised in last week’s paper. It’s a site that’s been long in the works, as the staff debated about what it should include, not include and how it can be relevant in today’s digital world.
Associate Editor Matthew Brown, whose technology geekery far surpasses my own (I’m no slouch in that department, but I feel like an amateur next to him), has spent the past several months using our ideas to develop the website, and the end result is something we all like and hope you will like, too.
The new website offers headlines and the first few paragraphs of a large selection of news stories, features, columns and sports stories in the current edition of the paper, and once in a while it will feature an article in its entirety.
It also offers plenty of opportunities for users to interact with The Gazette. People can share headlines, stories and photos on various social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter. They can also submit articles, obituaries, announcements, story ideas and, most importantly, “What did you expect for a buck?” submissions.
The staff here, while usually a funny bunch, sometimes has trouble coming up with those tidbits, and we know the stories about a “7-year-old son of a staffer” can get a bit old sometimes, so we definitely welcome your funny thoughts and comments for one of our most popular pages.
People can also purchase or renew a subscription online, submit a classified ad (which in most cases are still free in our paper) and contact the various staff members at the paper.
The new website is still in its infancy, and Matthew is in the process of teaching the others how to update it. Once we’re all up to speed, it will be a place Gazette readers can go to see some of the material in the paper, the latest obituaries, photos from events we didn’t have room to publish in the print edition, and breaking stories as they happen.
We plan on sharing some of those stories on our Facebook page, so plan on “liking” us to receive updates to your newsfeed to make it convenient to access them.
We consider this new website a marvelous leap forward for The Gazette, and it’s coming at the 13th anniversary of the paper. While the print edition will continue to be our flagship, the website and our Facebook page will act as great supplements to it for our readers. We know those supplements are the future, and this website is our way of getting there.
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Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, July 6, 2012.
Showing posts with label Portage County Gazette. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portage County Gazette. Show all posts
Friday, July 13, 2012
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Signnapping committed in front of Gazette office
A crime was committed in front of The Gazette office at 1024 Main St., Stevens Point.
The victim – a virgin Portage County Gazette sandwich board sign.
The crime – the sign was signnapped from the sidewalk while making its debut performance.
The perpetrator – most likely some college student who thought it would be cool to have a Gazette sandwich board sign decorating his room, although at this time police officers have no official leads.
After The Gazette moved from Church Street to Main Street last summer, we’ve had a number of people ask us “Where exactly on Main Street are you located?” Although a large sign on the front of the building says “The Portage County Gazette,” many people still couldn’t find us, calling us from their cell phones and asking what businesses we were next to on Main Street.
Realizing it must be difficult for many people to read the big sign, we decided to get a white sandwich board sign with our name and logo on it. By the time we received it last fall, though, people had figured out where we were and it was no longer needed.
So it sat in our lobby at 1024 Main St. throughout the fall, winter and most of the spring.
Last Thursday, when some staff members were cleaning the lobby, they decided the sign needed to be used for its original purpose. Plus, they thought, the weather was finally nice and maybe it would like to catch some of it.
So they put it outside on the sidewalk.
Since bringing the sign back in at the end of the day wasn’t a normal part of the daily routine, it remained there after all the staff members left for the day.
It most likely will never see the lobby again, as some time between 5 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. Friday it disappeared.
When a Gazette staffer realized it had been left outside Friday morning, he went to check on it, discovering the signnapping.
After a search through the Gazette offices, as well as with the hair salon next door, it dawned on us that the sign was probably now some college kid’s trophy, decorating his or her dorm room much like a dead deer head might decorate some hunter’s garage.
We could be wrong with our theory, but that seems like the most logical explanation. Even the police officer who took our report said we’re probably right. I just hope he doesn’t spend any more time investigating the sign’s disappearance, as pretty much every crime that’s ever been committed deserves more attention than this one.
But that won’t stop me from writing about it, as maybe a few words in this column about it might inspire someone who has seen the sign as a trophy to call us, letting us know who the perpetrator is and where it can be found. Or maybe the perpetrator will read this, realize he or she has stepped onto an ugly criminal path that could lead to bad things down the road, and will anonymously return it to our front sidewalk.
Perhaps, a reward may be offered for its return, such as a case of beer for those 21 or older, or a case of Ramen noodles for those who aren’t. Either one are probably way more valuable than a sign that holds worth for only one business in the entire world.
Even if we don’t get it back, The Gazette has learned a valuable lesson. If we need to get rid of something, all we need to do is put a Gazette logo on it and set it out on our front sidewalk. Maybe we can finally say goodbye to the broken newsstand box in our backroom holding a Gazette dated Aug. 4, 2000.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, May 20, 2011.
The victim – a virgin Portage County Gazette sandwich board sign.
The crime – the sign was signnapped from the sidewalk while making its debut performance.
The perpetrator – most likely some college student who thought it would be cool to have a Gazette sandwich board sign decorating his room, although at this time police officers have no official leads.
After The Gazette moved from Church Street to Main Street last summer, we’ve had a number of people ask us “Where exactly on Main Street are you located?” Although a large sign on the front of the building says “The Portage County Gazette,” many people still couldn’t find us, calling us from their cell phones and asking what businesses we were next to on Main Street.
Realizing it must be difficult for many people to read the big sign, we decided to get a white sandwich board sign with our name and logo on it. By the time we received it last fall, though, people had figured out where we were and it was no longer needed.
So it sat in our lobby at 1024 Main St. throughout the fall, winter and most of the spring.
Last Thursday, when some staff members were cleaning the lobby, they decided the sign needed to be used for its original purpose. Plus, they thought, the weather was finally nice and maybe it would like to catch some of it.
So they put it outside on the sidewalk.
Since bringing the sign back in at the end of the day wasn’t a normal part of the daily routine, it remained there after all the staff members left for the day.
It most likely will never see the lobby again, as some time between 5 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. Friday it disappeared.
When a Gazette staffer realized it had been left outside Friday morning, he went to check on it, discovering the signnapping.
After a search through the Gazette offices, as well as with the hair salon next door, it dawned on us that the sign was probably now some college kid’s trophy, decorating his or her dorm room much like a dead deer head might decorate some hunter’s garage.
We could be wrong with our theory, but that seems like the most logical explanation. Even the police officer who took our report said we’re probably right. I just hope he doesn’t spend any more time investigating the sign’s disappearance, as pretty much every crime that’s ever been committed deserves more attention than this one.
But that won’t stop me from writing about it, as maybe a few words in this column about it might inspire someone who has seen the sign as a trophy to call us, letting us know who the perpetrator is and where it can be found. Or maybe the perpetrator will read this, realize he or she has stepped onto an ugly criminal path that could lead to bad things down the road, and will anonymously return it to our front sidewalk.
Perhaps, a reward may be offered for its return, such as a case of beer for those 21 or older, or a case of Ramen noodles for those who aren’t. Either one are probably way more valuable than a sign that holds worth for only one business in the entire world.
Even if we don’t get it back, The Gazette has learned a valuable lesson. If we need to get rid of something, all we need to do is put a Gazette logo on it and set it out on our front sidewalk. Maybe we can finally say goodbye to the broken newsstand box in our backroom holding a Gazette dated Aug. 4, 2000.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, May 20, 2011.
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