I would like to announce that our newspaper is officially going green. Below was our press release.

The Western Star of Posey County has spent the last several months developing a new way for people to get the information they want now. Ok, so it's not new to the world, but it is new to Posey County. Today, January 30, 2009, we, the staff of the Western Star of Posey County, are launching the county's first (and only) ONLINE DAILY NEWSPAPER! Get your news about the county every day, not just once a week!

After much consideration and research, we are looking at changing the direction of the newspaper. Our goal is to effectively reach a larger audience with your information in less time and in a more cost-efficient manner.

The positives far outweigh the negatives in this case. We will save a great deal of money which will be passed on to our advertisers in the form of reduced rates, while reaching more people in less time.

What this means is that we are moving the paper from a once a week print publication to an online daily, meaning you will get information about the community daily through news feeds and email. We will email you a link every day to the website, or every time we add new content. You will also be notified by using the RSS Feed option (the little orange box), which notifies your email account of any new info added to the pages you select.

Reasons for the change?
~Advertisers are more willing to do online advertising in this economy than print.
~The cost of printing is increasing dramatically.
~The cost of distribution is steadily increasing.
~More people want their information in a timelier manner. They are frustrated by not knowing about meetings and events until they are past.
~We live in the age of technology. More and more people are using BlackBerrys and other PDAs to gain faster access to more information.

The website is completely user-friendly.

We have the usual pages of Community, Obituary, Church, Agriculture, General News, Editorial, Business, Social, School, Sports and Classified ads, but we also feature other types of information that will keep you both entertained and informed.

From these pages, you will be able to access regular items such as, daily news items, daily grain prices, the church directory, scriptures for the week, meeting agendas for city and county meetings.

Other items such as stories from local organizations, weddings, anniversaries, births, feature stories movie reviews, and so on will remain on the website for a week to allow plenty of people the opportunity to see them.

Here are a few bonuses for your readers:

• Daily news feeds
• Emergency notifications, such as boil orders
• Stock market information (at least twice a day)
• Get immediate information on school closings and other cancellations
• Daily obituaries
• Sports scores the next day
• Business Directory
• Meeting agendas
– School board, city, county meetings
• Grant/scholarship applications and information out immediately
• Get daily grain prices from CGB
• Put events online for non-profits on community calendar at no charge
• Events like “River Days” would be given one page dedicated solely to that event
• Parks and Rec notices and deadlines
• Deadline reminders for property tax deadlines, scholarship deadlines

Get information about local city and county government within 24 hours of the meeting or event! What do we mean? Find out what happens at Tuesday’s Posey County Commissioners meeting Tuesday afternoon! All you have to do is visit our website!

People will be able to get information through various ways. Subscribers can sign up for messages about emergency notifications (like school closings) to be sent to either an email account or as a text message sent to their cell phone.

We can offer RSS/XML feeds so that anytime there is an update to the website or particular item, subscribers are notified immediately.

Forms for classified ads; wedding, birth and anniversary announcements; and subscriptions can be downloaded through the website.

Classified ads are free! Post your items today!

We are giving the world a month to see what Posey County has through our eyes! After that, some items will only be available through a subscription.

If you have already paid for a subscription, your new year will begin right now…you will not have to pay for anything.

Within a few weeks, it is our goal to have live streaming video about events and activities in Posey County. It is the constant goal of the Western Star of Posey County to bring the community together.

We are also creating a links page to local civic groups and organizations! We encourage you to send us a little brief info about your organization and the link and we will help you get the word out!

As an additional service, we are offering advertisers a page of their own through our website for only $65 a month. When your ad changes, we will help you get the word out!

Confused? Don’t feel alone! Contact us after you look at the website! Let us know what we are missing and we will add it!

We are adding new sections and pages to the site daily! Don’t miss out!

http://www.western-star-news.com
Posey County's Indiana - Locally Owned and Online Green Newspaper