For a long time, community newspapers treated the Internet as an afterthought. The focus was on getting the newspaper to print, then uploading the stories online all at once.
When I first started at the Review in 2009, our articles were published online remotely by a web team in the Lower Mainland every Tuesday. Once a week, there would be a mass upload of articles, then nothing. Our analytics reflected that — the majority of our page views were on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Only the occasional breaking news story would interrupt that cycle.
We knew this wasn’t the way to go forward and quickly took things into our own hands and started managing our own postings. Important news stories and coverage of community events were posted right away, and feature articles were staggered throughout the week to encourage people to visit our site daily. We pursued an aggressive social media strategy and are now the most followed news site in Revelstoke, with more than 3,500 pages likes as of Friday. We know you want to read the news as it happens, and we’re happy to deliver it as quickly as possible.
Our online readership surged and we have page views that are higher than many much bigger community newspapers throughout B.C. Over the first four months of this year, we’ve averaged more than 30,000 users per month and almost 120,000 page views per month.
- Check it out: Our first website, from back in 2001
Now, we’re happy to launch our new website, which is optimized for the way people access the news today. There has been a shift in readership as a generation that grew up with digital devices and embraced social media has moved into adulthood.
More people have and will be accessing news and information from mobile devices than ever before. While for many it has replaced the need to read a newspaper, it has also made desktop and laptop computers for personal use increasingly obsolete.
It has been a game changer in our lives, with the reality of that impact continuing to be felt in new ways today. Our new website reflects this change.
We’re excited to have a modern website that will better enable us to connect with the community and provide news in a timely manner. We will continue to lead the way in reporting on news and what matters to Revelstokians, and strive to be the place people look to find out what’s happening in the community.
RevelstokeReview.com brings you the news, information and advertising in the way you want it, whether it is on your mobile phone, tablet or other form of technology. The new site is designed to be more readily responsive to any device, with all our stories, pictures and videos providing the same news learning experience no matter what device you receive it on.
- Check it out: Our website in 2004
The new site has been a long time coming, with lots of work being done behind the scenes to adopt a new platform that strengthens our ability to deliver the news and tell stories. It wasn’t just a matter of slapping lipstick on a pig — the new site is more like going from a pig to a thoroughbred. It has an updated look, better organized layout and is easy to navigate.
The traditional newspaper format will continue to be published to a significant audience who still like the idea of holding a newspaper in their hands in a quiet moment and perusing it for local news and advertising. It will package together the week’s biggest stories and a mix of features together for your reading pleasure.
Our digital platform gives us the ability to deliver the news to you within minutes, more than just words and photos but also with video through our channel BPTV (Black Press TV).
As well, the Review will continue to reach out to various social media channel audiences through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
For advertisers, our digital technology gives local businesses a massive reach. Advertisers will be able to put their ads across thousands of sites and target ideal customers based on age, gender, location, home address and even native language.
They can also target audiences based on what those audiences are doing via search history, online content consumption, transactions, browsing behaviour and clicks.
Through the online version of the Revelstoke Review you will be able to read the stories that make our region so great to live in. You can interact with those stories and you can help shape the stories that get told with easier access to sending our news team story tips, story ideas and photos using the online form accessed via our website.
So while the media landscape is changing, it’s still about telling you about what, where, why, when and who is creating news in our community. Now, you’ll be able to get more of it, and get it sooner – all in the palm of your hand.
Make RevelstokeReview.com your home page now and send us your best news tips, videos and photos to alex.cooper@revelstokereview.com anytime. Contact mavis.cann@revelstokereview.com for your advertising needs.