Readers may have noticed that we have launched a new web news service for this newspaper: coastcommunitynews.com.au
It’s not just a new website, it’s a ‘mobile web app’ designed to be used on your mobile in conjunction with the printed newspaper, primarily as a way to share local stories to your friends, family and colleagues.
The Coast News mobile web app already has on it a multitude of local articles and stories that we have published and many others that were not published due to lack of space in the newspaper. We have also entered hundreds of back issues in the system to enable readers to follow and research a topic, as all articles are searchable on Google and other search engines.
This is particularly important, as until now, articles published on line have not been searchable and so often cannot be found amongst the high volume of editorial produced. This limitation, until now, has made it very difficult for anyone to be certain that they have a complete background on any issue. It is expected that this feature will be of special interest for our local readers as new announcements are made, particularly if they are contra to what has been said before.
New articles, the diary, what’s on and all other parts of each edition of Coast News are added to the Coast News mobile web app on the night prior to publication day. Users will now be able to read the paper before it is printed and distributed. We have lots of great plans for this news site as a way of complementing our successful and highly sought after printed newspapers.
One of those plans is to have volunteers, who have already come on board, to be recorded reading each edition so that sight impaired users, or anyone that just wants to listen to it being read to them rather than read it themselves, can also have access to the latest news.
This feature will be implemented soon. The Coast News mobile web app has taken a great deal of effort and expense to implement as it is unique in many ways and it required a great deal of new programming provided by David Abrahams and his crew at Organise Internet.
To cover a small part of this cost, banner and rotating advertising is available for those astute business owners that want to be seen on the pages being read by so many people. Interested businesses should contact Central Coast Newspapers and bear in mind that there are only a very small number of spaces available for this type of advertising.
We’d also love to hear your feedback about the site. Go to our FaceBook page ‘coastcommunitynews‘ or our Twitter account @CoastComNews to send us feedback. There’s a great local story behind how this new system came together, but we’ll leave that for another time. We hope you enjoy our efforts.
Article, Oct 13, 2015 Cec Bucello, Central Coast Newspapers Dave Abrahams, coastcommunitynews.com.au