HeraldNet takes a great leap forward

Published 9:50 pm Sunday, September 26, 2010

I’m going to do something today that newspapers don’t do very often — certainly not as often as most media companies or businesses in general.

Newspapers are terrible about writing about themselves.

We’re pretty good about spotlighting the mistakes of others and sometimes showcasing the good deeds of others. But we generally ignore our own warts and usually don’t toot our own horn.

Let’s be honest. We’re as thin-skinned as everyone else and we aren’t particularly excited about giving people a chance to take potshots at us.

So consider this a warning. I’m about to say good things about The Herald’s new Web site. I’ve had very little to do with it, so I don’t think it’s being immodest to say that I like it a lot in comparison with the previous model.

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, please do at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet. I think you’ll find it an improvement.

For one thing, it just looks better. It’s much more interesting visually, giving us a chance to showcase the work of our photo staff, which is top notch.

A friend of mine noted recently that some so-called local news sites have a lot of photos of Paris Hilton and other celebrities on their front page. She liked the emphasis on Heraldnet of local people and events, and I do, too.

The new site also gives us a chance to better showcase local videos.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend that you go the Boeing page and check out the video by aerospace writer Michelle Dunlop. Dunlop asked the same questions of officials from Boeing, the Machinists union and the engineers/technical workers union about their relationship.

It’s worth checking out. As is the special section on Boeing and its union workers that ran in the paper Sunday and is also available on Heraldnet.

The new Web site went live Tuesday morning.

We didn’t promote it ahead of time. and that was a smart decision. As is common for such things, the site had a lot of bugs and things looked a little weird and went achingly slow for a while.

I know Web Editor Doug Parry was sweating it, but things started working pretty well fairly quickly. Kudos to Parry, senior Web developers German Blanco-Rodriguez and Marvin Neice, and many other staff members who worked hard on planning and putting together the new site.

Parry said there are still some bugs to work out. He noted that the search function has confused some people and keeps defaulting to today’s stories. He said he’s heard some complaints that people now have to go looking for their favorite blogs in the various sections rather than just finding them under a blogs heading that used to be on the site’s main page.

If you’ve got some concerns or questions, check out Parry’s Web Monkey blog and leave them.

At least one person commenting there has asked why we don’t have The Herald’s comics on the site.

I don’t know, but I do know that the newspaper has some exclusive things and the Web site has some exclusive things. They’re not identical and they’re not intended to have the same content or to have things presented in the same way. You can help boost my retirement fund if you buy the paper and look at the Web site.

One thing we did add to the site that is worth checking out are the political cartoons in the Opinion section. That’s another thing I like about the Web site — the cartoons add another interesting visual element.

The site is a work in progress and will continue to be. In looking at the Business section, I know we have some work to do. Dunlop has done a good job of adding some important links to other aerospace bloggers, analysts, and information on the Boeing page.

I recently took over The Storefront, which is a blog about small business, and I have a lot of catching up to do. If you have a favorite Internet site related to small business, send me an e-mail and I’ll check it out.

As I said, the new and improved Heraldnet is a work in progress and we can always use your help and your constructive criticism. And I know a few of you will throw a potshot in there for good measure.

Mike Benbow; 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.