Noozhawk readers can expect some changes when you visit our website Wednesday. What you see will be part of a complete overhaul of Noozhawk’s behind-the-scenes platform that is intended to improve your experience and our efficiency.
As I explained in my Dec. 2 Best of Bill column, we’re officially switching to the Newspack web publishing system at midmorning Wednesday. The overall transition could take up to two hours but most readers should encounter no disruptions or hiccups after we’ve started the process.
We’ve updated our Noozhawk logo; changed our headline, body text and navigation fonts to improve readability; reorganized our homepage to display more of our news reporting; simplified our menus; and cleaned up a lot of the clutter we’ve collected over the last 15 years.
The Newspack platform makes it easier for additional reader engagement and personalization, including more direct access to our team and the ability to upload your submissions — news tips, news releases, obituaries, photos of the day, and letters to the editor, among other things — right into our system.
Not all of these new features will be available immediately, but we’ll be rolling out most of them over the next couple of months.
By midday Wednesday, if you come across something — on either our website or our mobile site, or with our ads — that doesn’t work correctly or seem right, is a bad link, or if you just don’t like, please let us know by emailing news@noozhawk.com and/or me at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com. We’ll also take compliments, if you’d prefer.
Our e-Bulletins — the 4:15 a.m. A.M. Report and the 4:15 p.m. P.M. Report — have been reformatted but will undergo their own makeovers early next year.
Now in our 16th year, this is a major milestone for Noozhawk, and it sets us up for expanded coverage and growth.
Newspack is a collaboration of Automattic, the company that owns the WordPress publishing platform; the Google News Initiative; The Lenfest Institute for Journalism; ConsenSys; and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It’s intended to simplify and continuously improve the publishing process for small online news organizations like ours so that we can survive and thrive.
That focus is crucial for the future of local news, especially in communities of our size.
Noozhawk was one of the earliest news sites to be recruited to the program, whose leadership believed that our experience as a pioneering-but-mature, for-profit company was a valuable perspective for Newspack client-partners.
This transition has taken us 2½ long years, but it would not have happened without the dedication, determination and leadership of my two partners, executive editor Tom Bolton and business development vice president Kim Clark, managing editor Giana Magnoli, sales manager Sheridan Taphorn, and our web development partner, Vancouver-based Hop Studios.
Please let me know what you think. Thank you for your readership and support.
