Starting at noon Wednesday, your local news website will look different – in a way that we’re confident will please your online senses and savvy.
The web addresses FreeLanceNews.com and PinnacleNews.com will merge into one central address, SanBenitoCountyToday.com. Our dedication will remain strong in bringing our readers their San Benito County news as soon as it happens. But now, we’ve upgraded the website with more content, easier navigation and new interactive features.
On Wednesday, the new website will become available to readers. We hope you like the enhanced web community news coverage, and your feedback is valuable to us. Let us know what you think, what you like, what you don’t and how we can improve it. Email us at ed****@fr***********.com, or call Editor Kollin Kosmicki at (831) 637-5566.
Here’s a description of some of what’s new:
DAILY ALERTS IN YOUR INBOX
In the same fashion as freelancenews.com that you’re used to now, readers can receive daily newsletters with the morning’s top local, sports and entertainment news in the Hollister area. This go-around, we are adding breaking news text alerts. Look for the sign up in the coming weeks for text alerts. Meanwhile, subscribe to the e-newsletter under “home.”
LOGIN, DO A LOT
Once you’ve created a login to comment on stories, you can use the same information to login to “My Dashboard” and submit news tips, sports scores, nature photos, calendar events and use it in myriad other ways to get involved with your daily online newspaper. Through the Dashboard you can submit YouTube videos, letters to the editor and even start your own blog with photos. Having issues with your delivery? Just submit the form through your Dashboard. You can put a vacation hold on your subscription and submit a classified advertisement, too – in one fell swoop.
BUYING PHOTOS MADE SIMPLE
Years ago to buy a photo from a newspaper, you had to call an editor who would print the photo, ask you to come by the office to pay and pick it up. We’ve eliminated the middleman with this platform; our photo purchasing site Pictopia is fully integrated with SanBenitoCountyToday.com, making buying a photo as easy as clicking a button. See a photo of your son playing football, or daughter at a basketball game? Just click on “Buy Photo” above our local photos and you’re walked through the simple order form to have them delivered to your home.
COMMENTING, IN MODERATION
The Free Lance and Pinnacle continue to welcome readers to comment on our stories online as well as send in letters to the editor via email or post. With the new website, to comment you must login with an email address and password, or choose to link your comments to your Facebook account. The Free Lance and Pinnacle believe in free communication, but we do reserve the right to moderate the comments by approving or deleting. We encourage readers to use their real names; it gives credibility to comments and allows for substantive conversation, rather than name-calling.
STREAMLINING ANNOUNCEMENTS
When you’re informing family and friends of a death, birth, an engagement, a wedding or an anniversary – text and photos can be submitted through SanBenitoCountyToday.com. Look for the “submission forms” under “home” for instructions. We think the ease of uploading your photos and text to then see the announcement in the paper and online is an exceptional improvement.
AND HERE IS SOME MORE TO EXPECT:
To-do list: Submit community events to our calendar and view each event on our front-page every day; you can include photos, too.
More multimedia: Browse local videos by our reporters, look for photo slideshows, reader submitted galleries and local webcams to see what’s happening around town.
Socially inclined: Follow the news on facebook.com/pages/Hollister-Free-Lance and Twitter @hollisternews and local sports @hollistersports and view your feedback in real-time at SanBenitoCountyToday.com.
Better, worse?: Give us honest feedback on the changes you see. We want to know how to better serve the community in print twice a week and online every day.
Daily duty: We have your local forecast online, along with regional news from our sister papers the Morgan Hill Times and Gilroy Dispatch – now under their own news sections.
Sports central: We offer the only local sports show dedicated to local sports on The San Benito Score with host and sports editor Connor Ramey.
