Your houstonherald.com is getting a fresh start today, with a new look and updated technology that will make it easier for you to use.
The redesigned site is the culmination of nine months of work by employees of the Herald and technology partners selected by the newspaper to give readers the best possible experience.
The Herald’s Web site has become an important means of communicating with readers and those interested in the region. Any given day, more than 3,200 different computers log on to the site. In February, that represented 343,411 pages of information viewed. Businesses also have added it to their marketing tools to reach potential customers. In two of the last three years the site has been judged the top weekly newspaper site in Missouri.
You’ll most likely see changes in the navigation and organization of the site. The design is intended to give us a cleaner and more flexible display of the best content of the day.
Top New Features:
-Improved site search is one of the main benefits of the redesign: Click on a key word at the bottom of each story and quickly access previous stories related to the topic.
-You can change the size of the type for easier reading and send the article by e-mail or to various social networking sites.
-You’ll see more use of video and photographs contained in galleries through our partnership with myCapture. You can click on the photo to e-mail it to a friend or easily order a print.
-A calendar allows you to post community events and even add a picture. Submitting is easy.
-New technology will allow us to send video from a news event directly to the Web site. Want to see what’s happening in downtown Houston? Check out Grand Cam, around-the-clock live video from Grand Avenue to your computer.
-The new site also includes faster access for mobile devices. Type in the address and it takes you to a special site for mobile devices.
-Another way to access Herald news, sports, weather, obituaries and death notices is through a recently released iPhone app through Apple’s iTunes store.
-More interaction with readers through the use of “Your Stories” and “Your Photographs” that can be easily sent to the Herald’s Web site. Have an interesting story you want published or have photos you’d like to share? We’d love to post them.
-Save some money with great coupons from the coupon section of the Web site.
-Easy-to-use forms for anniversaries, births, engagements, letters to the editor, weddings, subscriptions and classifieds.
-Engage quickly with your friends by clicking icons for Facebook and Twitter on the homepage.
“We think it is vital that our Web site be, above all else, two things: useful and easy to navigate,” editor Jeff McNiell said. “In our redesign, we think you’ll find the most useful local news and information about Texas County that is available anywhere online. And we think the redesign of our Web site will help our readers find that information quickly.”
We hope you’ll enjoy the new houstonherald.com.
Jump in, check it out and let us know what you think.
-Brad Gentry, publisher
A video highlighting some of the new changes is on the Web site.
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