This has been an exciting week for The Citizen's Web site, www.auburnpub.com.
The site took two major steps forward in the effort to make it a product loaded with unique content.
The first step came Tuesday, when our new Web developer, Rich Bellamy, started on the job. An Auburn resident, Rich brings an impressive background in Web site and software programming. He's enthusiastic to have this opportunity and has already had a major impact. More on that later in this column.
Rich's hiring is significant because he's the first full-time Web developer we've had at The Citizen. Immediately before we created this job, we had a part-time Web coordinator who helped us take key steps forward. Before that, the site's management and development was largely a responsibility of existing employees, but it was one of many duties those people had.
Now the site has grown to the point where it's imperative to have someone in the building full-time who's job description is devoted exclusively to the Web site.
Over the past year, we've received plenty of advice, tips and questions about our site, and we've done our best to put that feedback to use. Rich, I'm sure, looks forward to interacting with site visitors, too.
The second big step came thanks in part to Rich's help. On Wednesday, we added full-length videos from the Democratic primary debates that took place the night before for candidates seeking Auburn city council and mayoral seats.
The addition of videos has been a top goal for the newsroom for more than a year. We took a small step last fall when we began offering Associated Press videos on national and world news at the site, but the bigger objective has always been to produce local video.
That time has finally come. We were fortunate to get some financial help from our parent company, Lee Enterprises, to purchase video and audio equipment this summer. Now our photo staff is diving into this new form of media with enthusiasm. We actually launched another local video earlier this month from the giant fire at Highland Park Golf Club. It was sort of a test run. That process went quite well, so we decided to take a shot at taping the debates. Rich came up with an improved way to display the videos on the site so they take less time to load up. The videos can also be seen with a wider array of Web browsers.
We're eager to continue forward with videos and audio photo slideshows. These are powerful storytelling tools that will help give our readers more reasons to check out the Web site.
Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net
The first step came Tuesday, when our new Web developer, Rich Bellamy, started on the job. An Auburn resident, Rich brings an impressive background in Web site and software programming. He's enthusiastic to have this opportunity and has already had a major impact. More on that later in this column.
Rich's hiring is significant because he's the first full-time Web developer we've had at The Citizen. Immediately before we created this job, we had a part-time Web coordinator who helped us take key steps forward. Before that, the site's management and development was largely a responsibility of existing employees, but it was one of many duties those people had.
Now the site has grown to the point where it's imperative to have someone in the building full-time who's job description is devoted exclusively to the Web site.
Over the past year, we've received plenty of advice, tips and questions about our site, and we've done our best to put that feedback to use. Rich, I'm sure, looks forward to interacting with site visitors, too.
The second big step came thanks in part to Rich's help. On Wednesday, we added full-length videos from the Democratic primary debates that took place the night before for candidates seeking Auburn city council and mayoral seats.
The addition of videos has been a top goal for the newsroom for more than a year. We took a small step last fall when we began offering Associated Press videos on national and world news at the site, but the bigger objective has always been to produce local video.
That time has finally come. We were fortunate to get some financial help from our parent company, Lee Enterprises, to purchase video and audio equipment this summer. Now our photo staff is diving into this new form of media with enthusiasm. We actually launched another local video earlier this month from the giant fire at Highland Park Golf Club. It was sort of a test run. That process went quite well, so we decided to take a shot at taping the debates. Rich came up with an improved way to display the videos on the site so they take less time to load up. The videos can also be seen with a wider array of Web browsers.
We're eager to continue forward with videos and audio photo slideshows. These are powerful storytelling tools that will help give our readers more reasons to check out the Web site.
Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net