“New and improved” is an overused cliché, but often times it’s a factual statement as well.
We’re hoping you’re feeling more of the latter once checking out our revamped website at www.fhtimes.com.
We entered the cutting-edge Internet world years ago, of course, but technology seems to change every six months these days, and sometimes for a smaller business it’s tough to stay on top of the ever-fluid trends.
With that said, however, we have several improvements we want to emphasize with this new site:
*Easier to use and navigate – The layout lends itself to quicker access for readers who want specific information on our site.
*More timely updates – Breaking news and other local “happenings” will be posted throughout the week and as events unfold.
*Business Directory – We think the new Marketplace could be a real boon for local businesses that want to further their promotion efforts. Customers can easily do searches to find businesses listed in our Fountain Hills Telephone Directory.
*More areas on the site for advertisers to purchase a variety of banners, box ads and the like.
*More features such as photo galleries (we used to have them – long story), blogs, submission forms, online poll, etc.
While our 4:30 News has been an evolving and popular item over the years, it had limitations as well. For example, as a news and sports guy, it has bothered me for a while now that if someone didn’t go to the Friday night home football game, they couldn’t officially find out (from us) who won the game until 4:30 the following Monday.
In this “new age” of Facebook, Twitter and texting, that just doesn’t cut it anymore.
This new website gives us the internal capability to change that paradigm and reach a broader audience in a more timely fashion.
While we’ve had an “e-edition” for several years now, this newer version is compatible with iPads – an important feature in today’s culture.
Our main passion remains the same – giving you all the news and information you could possibly need in Fountain Hills and the surrounding areas.
Most of that news and information can’t be found anywhere else – not in print, not online. Only in our publications and on our Internet sites (we’ve also revamped the Let’s Go! site). While the term “hyper local” is a newer buzzword in the journalism world, we’ve been practicing that here since the mid-1970s.
This new and improved website is only an extension of that philosophy.
It’s very rare anymore that our weekly print edition breaks major “scoops.” Council meetings are videotaped and available on the Web and on Channel 11. Multi-million dollar lottery winners are announced on television news.
So the only way we can “keep up” is through the Internet.
The print edition remains chocked full of that hyper local news, features, sports, club new, weddings, etc.
We like to think of it as offering you the best of both worlds – get those fingers dirty from the ink AND zoom around all you want on our Internet site.
