Advertisement

firehouse pizza banner

Out on a Limb: BTN 2.0 Launch A Success Despite a Few Glitches

Change is never an easy thing but we at Beech Tree News appreciate the patience of our loyal readers during our transition to BTN 2.0.  The response we've received has been extremely positive about the new site.  Yes, we've heard from some of you who prefer the old site but we ask you to stick with us during this transition time and we believe you'll come to enjoy the new site even more than the old one.  

As with any change in the realm of technology, there have been a few glitches along the way.  For starters, some photos that we imported from the old site did not load correctly on the new site.  Thus, some of you saw stories and captions, but no photos.  We went back and found most of these photos and reposted many of them.  So, this problem has been mostly alleviated.  

We heard from other readers who said they couldn't log on to the new site.  We found the biggest issue there to be folks who were relying on their "Favorites" to access the site, rather than typing in www.beechtreenews.com at the top of their browser.  The problem was some browsers were not able to redirect readers to our new site; they kept trying to find the old one and readers saw a message on their screen saying "server not found."   Some of these browsers were eventually able to redirect and find the new site but probably not all.  Most of these problems were remedied after a couple days or by typing our web address directly into the browser.  Meanwhile, most browsers automatically redirected readers to the new site without any problem.   

Also, as we expected, a few viewing/using quirks were reported from Internet Explorer (IE) browsers.  For those of you who have been with us from the beginning, BTN experienced multiple problems with IE in our initial launch in 2009.  With BTN 2.0, we've had some similar issues with IE users, especially with those versions 2006 or before.  However, we did hear from one reader who uses an older version of IE and he was viewing the site fine.  Go figure.  As we've said often, Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.org) has consistently been the best browser to view BTN.  In fact, we've not had a single viewing problem (to my knowledge) reported from Firefox users.  It's a free download and a great browser that I strongly recommend. 

Finally, some of these problems were magnified by the fact that approximately 1,900 readers tried to log on to our site last weekend during a 2-3 hour period shortly after the launch of BTN 2.0.  This volume was a little too much and too fast for our server.  Therefore, we've had to make some adjustments to handle the increased traffic.  

Now, some of you are wondering — why the new site?  To be honest, we didn't have much of a choice.  In many ways, we had simply outgrown the old site. BTN 1.0 was intentionally built on an extremely simple, no-frills platform.  Since we were arguably the first ones to launch a legitimate online news site in Butler County, we wanted it that way, knowing full well that the day would come when we would have to redesign and upgrade our site.  Thanks to the support we've received from our readers and advertisers, that day has come sooner than we expected.  So, BTN 2.0 is here and we're excited. 

BTN 2.0 contains a plethora of new features that are beneficial to readers and to BTN staff in managing the site and bringing you the news of Butler County.  For starters, our "home" page now is actually a "portal" page for our entire site.  In other words, you can get a preview of our entire site — most all sections — by viewing this page.  The first thing you'll notice is the "Feature Story" that displays top stories from multiple sections — not just general news items.  These are the photos that slide in and out.  From here you can access multiple articles.  You'll also notice the BTN News Ticker at the top of the home page.  It allows us to post news briefs and breaking news faster than ever.  At the very top, you can access Morgantown weather with just a click, while current conditions and the temperature are always visible.  Soon, we'll have an icon at the top that allows us to stream Beech Tree Radio 1570 AM WLBQ.  In the middle left of the page readers can access our "Community Calendar," which actually looks like a calendar.  Below that is a daily poll question and to the right of the poll is the top two stories from each section.  While we were able to post a few videos on our old site, BTN 2.0 is far superior in this area. None of these enhanced features would have been possible with our old site. 

Additionally, we're building a service directory, have more advertising opportunities, a "Contact Us" feature, a place to subscribe to a future BTN Newsletter, and the ability for readers to easily share BTN stories on social media outlets.  Consequently, by all web design and Internet standards, BTN 2.0 is a far superior site as compared to our old one and we're confident those readers who've expressed concerns will gradually warm up to our new site.

Having said that, if you find the BTN home/portal page confusing or too busy for your liking, just ignore it and click on the section headers at the top of the page.  This will take you to each section — just like the old site did — except the pages are brighter and easier to read than the old site, which was a common complaint of our original design.  

The Beech Tree News experience has always been about change.  In fact, our launch in 2009 represented a "change" in how folks in Butler County accessed local news.  Countless naysayers discounted BTN 1.0 but our readers and advertisers embraced that change and in doing so have transformed the local news market and broken the virtual news monopoly that one company had on Butler County.  We are grateful for those who have stood with us over the years.  It is our hope that BTN 2.0 will continue to improve readers' access to local news and their overall satisfaction with Beech Tree Media, which includes a growing Beech Tree Radio 1570 AM WLBQ.  We're here serving Butler County because of you — our readers and advertisers — and we always welcome your comments.  Thanks for reading!

* * * 

John Embry is the author of Out on a Limb.  He is the co-founder and vice-president of Beech Tree Media (www.beechtreenews.com and Beech Tree Radio 1570 AM WLBQ).  John teaches American History (8th Grade) at Butler County Middle School and is the head softball coach at BCHS and BCMS.  He is married to Beth and they have one daughter, four-year-old Isabella Faye.  They live in Aberdeen - site of the original "beech tree."  

 

 
Tags: 

Comments

With the success of your online paper, is there the possibility of becoming the county news used for official notifications? Do you have to be a print paper to qualify for this? It would be nice to see the official statements published by the County and City and their agencies posted on your website.
Randal - great question. Current KY law requires a print publication, which is something we are considering. However, recognizing the importance of reaching BTN readers, the city, county and the local school district have chosen to post important legal notices with us. You can typically find them in our "Classified" section. As you might expect, politicians are still a little behind the times in acknowledging how an increasing number of citizens are relying on legitimate online news outlets for their local news. I expect this print-only monopoly to gradually change as the cost of legal advertising continues to increase in many print publications, costing locally entities (i.e. taxpayers) precious operating funds and further restricting already tight budgets.
Thanks for the info. Maybe this is something we could take to C.B. Embry to have introduced in the legislature. He would have some good input from some very knowledgable subject matter experts.... You guys. :) With the current Green push on, anything that would reduce the amount of paper required for these official notices should be given some serious consideration.


Bookmark and Share

Advertisements