Some circumstances may keep even the most vigilant political watchdogs from attending their local meetings and events, but they need not worry with the enhanced content of spotlightnews.com, a click of your mouse will take you there.
For decades, Spotlight Newspapers has offered quality community news in its weekly newspapers. Now the award-winning news outlet has improved its Web site, www.spotlightnews.com, to bring you the sights and sounds of the news that shapes your world.
A new drop-down menu lets site visitors select photo galleries, video and sound bites from current news or archived favorites. The site also boasts a 24/7 local updates section for breaking stories and, if that weren’t enough, a partnership with Capital News 9 allows spotlight news.com visitors access to the television station’s news stories as well.
Dan Lovell, director of new media at Eagle Media, the company that owns Spotlight Newspapers, oversees construction and development of the company’s Web sites. It has been his goal since he came to the company as a managing editor in 2002 to bring the readers of Eagle’s products the most interactive news experience possible.
With the updated Web site, you have the ability to see constantly updated news. We’re not going to wait until next week to publish a big story. We can bring it to our readers as soon as the story breaks,` he said. `With photo galleries, audio and video, we can use the Web to enhance what they see in the newspaper.`
Lovell said that, in addition to reading the reporters’ representation of what has occurred at a particular event, spotlightnews.com can bring the reader even closer to the story by providing a first-hand account by way of audio samples.
`A quote is one thing, but to be able to click on a link and hear an official or politician actually say it is another,` Lovell said.
Spotlight Newspaper’s Tim Mulligan said he shares Lovell’s enthusiasm for Web-based journalism.
A graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh, Mulligan began his journalism career at the Malone Telegram as a reporter and then moved to the Press Republican in Plattsburgh as a copy editor and page designer for six years. He then worked for the Utica Observer Dispatch on the features desk for a year and a half before joining Spotlight Newspapers in October 2005 as managing editor.
These days, Mulligan hangs a new shingle in the Delmar office: online editor.
`As managing editor, I work with the senior managing editor to help reporters develop stories, oversee production and make sure the paper goes out on time,` said Mulligan. `With the online content, it’s not that different. But now when I work with the reporters, I emphasize the need for photo galleries and news updates. I hope to take more photos, and have an increased presence in our communities with photos, and increase the community feel of spotlightnews.com.`
Mulligan said another feature of the enhanced spotlightnews.com will be the addition of blogs.
`Right now, I expect to have four bloggers from inside Spotlight Newspapers,` said Mulligan.
He said visitors would be able to enjoy ` and contribute to ` a sports blog, a news blog, a features blog and a blog geared toward business.
He said the Web site’s new local news updates section will allow reporters `to flesh their stories out a bit further and look deeper into an issue.`
This was best exemplified when Spotlight’s Jim Cuozzo covered the Christopher Porco murder trial in Orange County, said Mulligan.
`We got a tremendous response from our Porco coverage,` said Mulligan, noting that spotlight news.com was updated twice daily during the trial coverage. `That was sort of the model that we wanted to go for in making the Web site bigger and better.`
Instant feedback is another benefit of the revamped Web site. Mulligan said that instead of writing a letter to the editor about a particular story and having to wait two weeks to see it published, readers can take part in an online `dialogue` of sorts by posting com-ments at the end of the story or in one of the blogs.
`This is an excellent way to enhance the content of our newspapers, and a great way to serve the readers in our communities,` said Katherine McCarthy, senior managing editor of Spotlight Newspapers. `And Tim is the right man to head this up.`
Both Mulligan and Lovell agree that enhanced media is the future of journalism, but said it doesn’t mean that it’s ringing the death knell of the community newspaper.
`I think they work hand in hand,` said Lovell. `They complement each other. People may use the newspaper article as gateway to the Web site, but I don’t think that it will ever become a replacement for an actual newspaper you can hold in your hand.`
Mulligan agrees. `People still want a product in their hands,` he said, but added the Web’s com-petition may lead to a decrease in daily and weekly newspapers if they don’t find their niche. `With us it’s community news. I think some of the larger newspapers don’t have the ability to cover news like we do in a lot of the communities, and with that, I think our print edition is going to stay around. The Web site will help us enhance that and, in tandem, help us produce a stronger news product.“