When you check out our online edition this week, you will probably be doing so on our new website.
This has been an ongoing process with Student Publications, Inc., since they purchased the newspaper back in February, of moving us over to a new website. We have to thank Woodward Communications for continuing to host our website and posting our online editions weekly for the past seven months while this was being developed, as well as BloxCMS for getting us the archived data from the past few months.
One of the things we’ve already been talking about in training is how smooth this website is for things for us on the backend that people in the community don’t see, especially for things like photo uploads. As much as we were able to use BloxCMS and get things connected to assets and people, whenever there was a week of 50 or more photos from an event, you could expect it would take the person uploading an extra hour to complete. With a small staff, that’s an hour or more of the editor’s week or coverage for Heritage Days. The one thing we love about Mount Vernon and Lisbon is you’re guaranteed to have a photo heavy week at least once a month, thanks to all the great festivals and community gatherings here, let alone school activities.
It’s going to be beneficial for all of us moving forward, however, to have a similar website on the same platform as the Daily Iowan and be able to utilize some assistance from their digital team to help us upload stories and photos on a weekly basis. Our staff will always have the ability to make corrections to stories and access to posting to the website if there is breaking news, and be responsible for uploading during portions of the year when the digital staff is not able to.
Please understand that even as we launch this website, there is going to be a bit of us getting used to it as a staff here and at sister publication the Solon Economist, especially in getting stories to populate in the correct subject headings. We’re just happy to have this next piece of transitioning happening from Woodward to Student Publications, Inc., completed.