A screenshot of a tablet view of the new website. The site is responsive, meaning it automatically adjusts to the size of a reader’s screen.
The Lincoln County News has launched a new website that greatly improves the online experience for both readers and advertisers.
The new website – lcnme.com – is easier to use, more attractive, and fully responsive – meaning the site automatically adjusts to the size of the reader’s screen, whether a desktop computer, a smartphone, or a tablet.
On the old website, article pages were dead-ends, forcing readers to return to the home page or a section page to see more articles. Now, readers can simply turn to the right-hand side of the page for links to breaking news, calendar events, and more. Each article page on the new site also contains links to articles about similar subjects at the bottom of the page.
For all the businesses, individuals, and organizations who submit items to The Lincoln County News for publication, the site simplifies the submission process with easy-to-use forms to send an advertisement, calendar item, letter to the editor, obituary, or press release. The submission forms contain links to helpful guidelines for each type of submission.
The new Lincoln County News website as it appears on a smartphone screen. The site is responsive, which means it automatically adjusts to the size of the reader’s screen.
The site includes a new staff directory where readers can find contact information for the reporter who covers their town or the sales representative who can assist with their marketing needs.
The change in the domain name for the website coincides with a change in domain name for staff email addresses, from lincolncountynewsonline.com to lcnme.com.
For most staff members, the address starts with their first initial and last name. For example, the email address for the editor, J.W. Oliver, is joliver@lcnme.com.
The general email address for editorial submissions is now info@lcnme.com. The general email address for sales is ads@lcnme.com.
The site features prominent links to the LCN’s long-standing and popular Facebook page, as well as its relatively new Instagram and Twitter accounts – both @lcnme.
The site integrates LCN’s online calendar, previously a separate site accessible from the LCN website. Readers can see upcoming events in the right-hand margin from any page on the new website.
The site offers more options for advertisement placement and size, and the ads themselves are bigger, with eye-catching design and more flexibility.
Instead of a brief and more-or-less permanent message and a link to the business’s website, advertisers can choose to highlight specific products or services and refresh their ad as often as they choose.
Lincoln County News staff can build multiple links into a single ad. For example, real estate agencies can highlight up to three properties in a banner ad. When a reader clicks on one of the properties, the link goes directly to the property page. When one property sells, the agency can contact LCN and arrange to replace it with another.
Elsewhere in advertisement options, the site expands and improves upon the Local Online section of the old website. Local Online essentially offers advertisers the opportunity to have a mini-website within The Lincoln County News website.
The Local Online section of the website contains free listings for hundreds of businesses in the county with each business’s address and phone number. To request the addition of a free listing, call 563-3171 or email info@lcnme.com.
For a low monthly fee, businesses can link their listing to a page with more information – a menu for a restaurant or rates for a hotel, for example.
The site was designed and built by Amber Clark, graphic designer and website administrator at LCN, with technical support from Associate Publisher John Roberts.
Special Projects Coordinator Greg Latimer, Kathy Lizotte, and Oliver assisted with development.
Along with the new website, The Lincoln County News has made changes to its e-edition – an electronic version of the print edition available to print and e-edition subscribers.
Readers can still subscribe to the print or e-editions or renew their subscriptions online, now through a new and more efficient system.
The new website gives print and e-edition subscribers access to more content online than ever before with a new “premium” service.
The same content from the previous website – and more – will remain free and accessible to all on the new website, but subscribers can now access much more content on the responsive, easy-to-navigate website.
For more information about lcnme.com, call 563-3171 or email info@lcnme.com.
