The Internet has been hard on newspapers. Some guy named Craig created a list, put it online and crushed the bottom lines of big-city daily newspapers. Subscribers started reading their favorite paper on their laptops — for free — leading to circulation drops at paid dailies. The Internet is an infinite landscape of opportunity and heartbreak. For every Facebook success, there’s a cautionary Seattle P-I tale — the newspaper that went online only and now is barely a factor in the Emerald City.
Weekly newspapers like The Inlander haven’t been so impacted by the changes because we already fit the Internet ethic — we’ve always given our content to you for free. We still believe in the power of print, and our newspaper continues to connect way, way, way more local people than any website. Still, the Internet allows us to present our journalism and advertisers to you in new, cooler ways, so we’ve just taken our website up another notch. For more than a decade now, we’ve watched what works and what doesn’t, and we’ve included the best we’ve seen in our third version of Inlander.com.
We noticed, for example, that people use the Internet for crucial, day-to-day information — like what time Toy Story 3 is playing. While we’re limited in how much we can print, there are no limits online, so we update movie times constantly. And you’ll find many more local events listed online than we publish in our Calendar. Our new site also allows you to search more than 1,000 Inland Northwest restaurants, nightspots and entertainment venues; you’ll find contact info, a map and a brief description. You can also search, by keyword, all our stories from the past decade — so you can catch up on all our giant Palouse earthworm coverage right from your laptop. Or you can post a comment that you think it’s a hoax.
But we’re also doing things we can’t do in our weekly paper. With our blog, we’ve gone daily, with fresh postings throughout the week on news, entertainment and even the latest food abomination from KFC. We’re also producing slideshows and videos (see them all here) to complement our coverage — everything from answers to our On the Street question to our own Summer Movie Preview in Poetry series.
There’s something new every day on Inlander.com, and it’s always there to help you navigate life around here. It’s a whole new way to experience The Inlander.
Ted S. McGregor Jr. is the Editor and Publisher of The Inlander.
