Sunday's article referred to above.
April 20, 2008
BY RICK NAGEL Editor/Publisher
I love newspapers. Not just as an editor, but as a reader.
I'm guessing you do, too. And that's why I want to share a little secret that's really enhanced my enjoyment of The Beacon News.
At work, I've made
www.beaconnewsonline the home page on my computer.
At home, I hooked up The Beacon's RSS feed so that local news stories are on my Yahoo! home page.
So, as a regular part of my day -- or as a break at lunch time -- I'll take a minute or two to find out what's happening out there in the great, wide world away from my desk.
And what I find at
www.beaconnewsonline is so amazingly cool.
Here are just a few of the features I really like:
1. Spot news Did you feel the Earth move Friday morning?
I know I did.
I also know that the first thing a lot of people did was turn on the television to find out why their bed was shaking. But a lot of you also turned to our Web site.
We had a story up in a matter of minutes and updates throughout the day.
Until recently, you'd have to wait 26 hours to read about local reaction to the quake story. Now, with
www.beaconnewsonline, breaking news is back in the local newsroom.
We also know breaking news doesn't have to be a major disaster to be of interest to you.
The day before the quake, I logged on and saw "NEW: Firefighter injured, house damaged in St. Charles fire." The item was up, again, as soon as we heard about it. Fortunately, the blaze was extinguished in 20 minutes. But I couldn't help thinking that if I lived in St. Charles and saw the smoke and the fire engines, I'd want to know what was happening. Right now. That's a report you're not going to get from TV or any other source.
(2) Video and photo galleries I went to the Paramount's annual masquerade ball and the Quad County Urban League dinner last week and had a wonderful time. Jim Edwards took pictures at both events, and we put about 75 photos of each into photo galleries on the Web site. So far, we've had more than 13,400 page views of the masquerade ball, and we expect as many from the Urban League gallery.
Faces and names of people in our communities always have been a big part of what we do -- and we're getting those names and faces every day in print. But now we do it better -- almost exponentially better -- with the infinite capacity of beaconnewsonline.
(3) Sports "wow" Our sports writers are just the best -- knowledgeable and smart and funny. Jason Bauman just cracks me up, and if you like sports with a little attitude, you've got to check out his blog, Jason's Take.
The Daily Dose is one feature of our awesome sports blog, The Sports Beacon. Each Daily Dose is great, but Jim Owczarski has done some jaw-dropping stuff that's made me laugh out loud. And with all the miserable news and the lousy economy, who couldn't use a good laugh once a day?
I feel like I'm getting a free golf lesson that might cost $50 or $100 a shot when I tune into the golf tip of the week video on Thursdays.
And you really have to see yourseason.com to believe it. Our Fox Valley sports stuff is there, along with prep news from all the other Sun-Times papers. Visit beaconnewsonline or check it out at
yourseason.suntimes.com//index.htmlI can go on and on and on about the Web features, and they're getting better every day. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more cool stuff, created solely for your delight.
One more thought. While we're adding content that's Web only, more often than not we're adding content that enhances what you see in the newspaper.
It's like a circle, or a cycle.
We might have a short breaking story on the Web site in the afternoon ... that gets an update in the evening ... that complements the full story and photo in the next day's paper ... that has a "click to it" for more photos and updates on the Web site ... that sends you back to the follow-up story in the next day's paper.
The newspaper you hold in your hand right now is a fabulous, award-winning thing. It's more local than it's ever been. It is its own wonderful Daily Dose, and you don't need the Web site or any other gewgaws if you don't want them.
And you can say the heck with the newspaper because you can get the milk for free on the Web -- but you would miss the print-only content and the big-picture context and the irreplaceable feeling of holding that newspaper in your hands.
But, oh, the two together.
For a newspaper lover, that's a match made in heaven.