Boulder City Review recently launched an all-new website design that will make it easier for readers to navigate and sign up for subscriptions.
Bouldercityreview.com represents a new, cleaner website with better story organization and photo presentation to highlight the paper’s weekly content.
The site also will give a better platform to release breaking news and update stories as they develop during the week.
“The new website is the culmination of a year of work between myself and the Web designers in Las Vegas,” Boulder City Review Editor Arnold Knightly said. “This is an exciting new direction for this still new paper.”
The site includes a new navigation bar that allows readers to easily find topics of interest, such as news, city government, Lake Mead/Hoover Dam, high school sports, community and favorite columnists.
The website includes links to the calendars for the library and the Chamber of Commerce.
It also has tools for quick sharing of stories via social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
“The website will enable the paper to become ingrained with the fabric of the community,” Knightly said. “It also has a ‘poll’ feature that will help us gauge the temperature of the community on certain issues.”
The website’s first poll question, “Should the City Council vote in favor of an indoor smoking ban for businesses” received more than 70 votes with 62 percent registering their support of the ban.
A new poll question will be posted every Wednesday evening.
One key component of the new site will be the improvement of paywall customer service for the home subscriber and online-only customers.
The Boulder City Review launched in October 2009 with the first online paywall for a newspaper in Nevada. Since then, the Nevada Appeal and the Reno Gazzette-Journal have erected paywalls.
The initial website was not integrated with the paper’s subscription platform, which caused an extra step to be taken to establish online access.
With the new website, visitors can sign up for home delivery, establish website access and manage accounts online.
Home delivery remains $26 per year, which includes free access to the website. People who subscribe to the Las Vegas Review-Journal receive a rate of $12 per year.
The newspaper also offers an online only option for $2 per month.
“Paywalls are an increasingly important business model in the newspaper industry,” Knightly said. “Sometimes I believe people forget newspapers are a business. To keep bringing the quality of reporting we feel we bring to the readers of Boulder City, it is important that we are able to generate enough revenue to accomplish that goal.”
The Boulder City Review editorial staff includes two full-time writers, freelance writers, interns and columnists who receive compensation.
According to industry magazine News&Tech, more than one-fifth of U.S. newspapers require a paying subscription for online access.
Some content will remain outside the paywall including obituaries, classifieds, access to advertising sites connected to bouldercityreview.com, and the newspaper’s new online blog: Blogging BC.
“I am very excited about this next phase of the newspaper in Boulder City,” Knightly said. “I firmly believe it will bring something new to the people who are interested in what is happening in this town.”