On the Web
This week marks one of the more notable moments in RN&R history: the official launch of our Internet site. As of today, almost all of our newspaper’s content, as well as some extras that aren’t in the printed version, will be available online at www.newsreview.com. Our sister newspaper in Sacramento has already been launched online, and our sister paper in Chico will soon follow.
If you stop and think about it, you’ll realize that this is a weird time to be launching a Web site of any kind. After all, Internet endeavors right now are tanking it right and left, to the point where many dot-coms are shutting down and many investors in NASDAQ are downing antacids by the truckload. It’s also weird for a different reason: The Reno News & Review, which claims to be one of the more progressive newspapers in the state, is one of the last papers in the state to put its content on the Web.
Both of these oddities can be explained by fact that we did not want to leap into something huge, like an Internet site, before we were ready. Our emphasis has been, and will continue to be, on the printed version of the newspaper, and we didn’t want to take resources away from the development of the News & Review to produce a Web site prematurely. A lot of newspapers have leapt onto the Web in a big, expensive way over the last five years or so, only to pour a ton of money into mediocre, quickly outdated sites.
I think you’ll agree that newsreview.com was worth the wait. We’re proud of the site and believe it will be a tremendous complement to the printed newspaper. All of the stories from here on out will be archived (as a matter of fact, all the papers since Dec. 28, 2000, are already archived on the site) and linked to each other in a number of ways—by author, by section and by topic. Also, look for the site to feature things in the future that the printed newspaper can’t, such as documents and materials from various stories, as well as expanded coverage of Northern Nevada’s music scene, including MP3 files from local bands.
I encourage you to access newsreview.com and check it out. Feel free to e-mail me with any thoughts you have regarding the site, including any bugs or problems, suggestions for improvement and kudos on anything you like.
While I don’t often agree with conservative KKOH talk show host Rusty Humphries’ politics, I do know he’s a good guy with a big heart, and he’s showing off that heart by arranging a trip to Disneyland for the child victims in the Fallon leukemia cluster and their families.
“Everyone is going,” Humphries says. “We didn’t want to tell anybody they couldn’t go.”
Humphries estimates that it will cost $20,000 to pay for the 10 families—about 38 people, total—to go on the trip. He says that private planes will pick them up in Fallon on May 20 and fly them to Fullerton, where he hopes to have limos waiting for the families to take them to the hotel. On May 21, the kids and their families will spend the day at Disneyland, and they’ll visit the adjacent California Adventure Park on May 22, returning to Fallon that night.
Humphries will be raising funds for the effort through May 19, the day before the trip. If you’d care to donate to the effort, send donations or drop them by at: The Rusty Humphries Community Fund, 595 E. Plumb Lane, Reno, NV, 89502. All donations are tax deductible.