Owner/publisher Aaron Creighton (foreground) unveiled the new newspaper website for the writers at a holiday gathering. (Photo by Michael Brewer)

The Alpine Mountaineer premieres new website

By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer

At a festive gathering last week celebrating the holidays and the newspaper’s contributors, Aaron Creighton, owner and publisher of The Alpine Mountaineer newspaper, premiered a new digital website for the readers of this newspaper.
This new format will bring this valuable information source, not only into the 21st century, but into the second quarter of the century. The digital website will contain, when completely rolled out, not only all the news stories in the newspaper, but will also have interactive games, weather, traffic and much more. Reporters will be able to update and instantly put out stories for the subscribers, in real time. Communication is the key for a strong community.
The Alpine Mountaineer will be partnering with Mountain Reporter for breaking news stories and has current weather forecasts from Ron Chalfant from the Lake Gregory Weather Group. The plan is to have an online radio station that will contain road, fire, traffic and weather reports as well. This will be an interactive format where drivers can report real-time incidents and warn others of current conditions. While the site is being incrementally rolled out, it will be free until Jan. 31 for all to check out and explore at www.thealpinemountaineer.com.
There will be five levels of subscriptions for this digital website, from a basic online newspaper subscription only, to an online plus print copy service to premium levels with the games, video, breaking news and other interactive services. The prices for the various services, although not announced at the meeting, range from $25 a year to $45 for the all-inclusive digital edition, plus a physical newspaper.
Next to the newspaper’s name is a three-line “sandwich icon” which, when clicked, leads to the drop-down menus of current news, communities, editorials, letters to the editor, government, events, history, gardening and other topics. There will be a moving scroll across the top with breaking news, while the top news stories will be on the top of the front page and will be clickable to read the rest of the story. There will be additional photos for some stories, which were limited by space in the print edition. The digital edition will be able to be more comprehensive that the print edition in the future as it grows in content. All the past stories of the newspaper will be in the archives on the webpage, as it is fully developed.
This interactive format will also enable advertisers to share content from their websites to those who click on their ads. There will be opportunities for advertisers to add video to their ads and to keep it current.
“I am now requesting feedback and input on the site from our subscribers and asking for ways to make it more user-friendly and useful for them. I am a collaborative person and know our writers and contributors take great pride in what they are offering for the community, and we all want to have the best product possible for our readers,” said Creighton.