Newspaper Website Gets Makeover

With an expansion of local news content starting today, www.westfieldrepublcan.com and www.mayvillesentinelnews.com is the definitive source for news and information about the region.

The expansion means that readers of The Westfield Republican’s and Mayville Sentinel’s web site will find comprehensive coverage of local news and events from this week’s edition rather than just a handful of items usually posted each day.

With the change comes a whole new look. Behind the modern look of the site, readers will find enhanced features that include:



Registration.

The new site enables each reader to register as a member for a personal account. Member registration, which is free, is important because it enables you to post comments on stories, blogs and polls. It also enables you to post photos to The Westfield Republican’s popular CU photo-sharing site. The site provides readers a view of thousands of photos of the area and is already popular with readers.



More calendars.

Topic specific calendars should help you better plan your daily lives. As seasons change, so will calendars, with sporting and school events, for example, highlighted in separate listings, as well as calendars containing things to do in the area.



Interactive features that include:

More polls.

You will find more chances to express your opinion on the new site. More polls will be used more often, sometimes within a story itself.

User comments.

Members are free to comment on most stories they read on the site. Involving the readers more through polls and comments helps add a human touch to the news as well as make the site more relevant to readers.



More information in general.

The new site enables The Westfield Republican newsroom to post more in-depth information to explain a story.

“With the new site we can post more photos with each story, and we will provide the reader links to more information and documents that may in some cases provide background information for a story,” said Assistant Editor Sara Herrmann.



Blogs.

Look for some quick-hitting blogs on the site covering a variety of topics.



Stories where you expect them.

The new site enables stories to be posted in more than one location. A story about a store being damaged by floods could be found both under business and news.



Read the news when and where you want.

The site adds a mobile edition that enables you to access the site via your cell phone or PDA device as an option when you register as a free member.



Breaking news alerts

Alerts will be posted for breaking news events.



E-mail alerts.

Registered members can sign up to get an e-mail whenever an event is posted containing the keywords that interests them.

Advertising options also have been improved on the site. Local business now have more options to get their messages across, including text ads, more sizes of ads, even the option to put their newspaper ads on the home page.

“We are working hard to assure the site is as relevant to our online readers as possible, bringing you in a digital format the news and information you need and want,” said General Manager Jim Rush.

“For more than 150 years, we have been the region’s most comprehensive and credible news source,” Rush said. “Now, by improving the digital version of the paper, we are delivering that same top-notch local news coverage to your computer.”

He noted that the PDF version of each day’s edition would continue to be available to Westfield Republican and Mayville Sentinel Plus members by subscription.