WE'RE ON THE WEB!

The Waukon Standard newspaper has moved to the technological cutting edge, by recently going “on-line.” The paper is now accessible on the world wide web at www.waukonstandard.com and joins the 1700 newspapers around the United States that are already on line.
Tom Johnson, publisher of the Waukon Standard, says that while the paper has had a website for the last three years, it was very basic, containing a small amount of news and little else. In building the new site, Waukon Standard wanted to create a community-oriented web site, which, says Johnson, “the Waukon Standard is well placed to provide, given our contacts within the community.”
Upgrading of the website began in early May using a PowerAdz.com product called “z-wire.” After more than four weeks of solid work that was, as Johnson put it, “a total staff effort” the new site was recently completed and tested, and is now ready for use by the community.
While the web site has been completely overhauled, it hasn’t lost any of that hometown feeling. The electronic version contains all the information you would find in the hard copy edition, plus more. You can now access the latest news of the week, check the weather report, stay up on your stay healthy reading and find out all the local goings-on in the local family pages.
One of the highlights of the web overhaul is the community service section. Waukon Newspapers is offering a page, which is free of charge, to non-profit organizations in the county. Waukon Standard staff are available to work with organizations in putting together a page that contains information about their organization and its services.
Of course, the Waukon Standard would not be complete without the local sports section. On the new site, you can check the results of recent games, events and matches; you can even find and print out the local team sport schedules. Johnson says, however, that the highlight of the sports section is an up-to-the-minute listing of event cancellations, which can easily be checked before leaving home.
Another feature of the web site is a “community guest book.” According to Johnson, this “room” is similar to the old-fashioned “town notice board” where you would post a message or a question to the community and someone who knew about your subject matter would post you a reply. Or as one guest wrote, “it’s like a virtual letter to the editor.”
Response to the guestbook site has been lively. Comments vary, including both local residents and out-of-town visitors. “Waukon is a great little city. It is nice to keep up on the local news and sports,” Rich Reiser has written in. Visitor Dr. David E. Schafer comments, “On vacation. Nice to check in on the home town. Just like Waukon, this is a great website. If anyone is looking for a great place to live, check out Waukon!
A section of the online newspaper that will actually be larger than the printed edition is the classified ads. In the online paper, the listings will come from the Waukon area, and from area newspapers that are within a 200-mile radius.
In an effort to promote local business on a local and regional basis, the Waukon Standard web site includes a comprehensive business directory service. This directory lists the names, addresses and contact information for every retail business in the county. The listing is made free of charge to the business, and the web site even includes a map generation program that will create a map to show you how to get from your front door to the exact business you need to visit. Other features include store coupons and “links” from newspaper advertisements to the advertisers home web site.
Johnson is excited about the new web site and sees much potential for the site in assisting with Waukon’s economic development. “We believe that by “getting the word out” as to what Waukon and the county has to offer, we as a community can more successfully compete in attracting new customers, potentially growing new business, and better serving those loyal members of our community customer base. We as a community have all the necessary pieces to be economically successful; with this web site we are simply putting our message out there for all the world to see.”
So does or will online newspapers replace the newsprint newspaper that has been the link to communities for centuries? According to Johnson, the answer for the Waukon Standard is “no.” As he points out, “people still like to have a real newspaper so they can cut out pictures and articles for scrapbooks.” But he does state that “the website is a real asset to the newspaper and the community, as it expands to the next level what newspapers are as an information source.”
While at this stage only the Waukon Standard is accessible on the Internet, Waukon Newspapers plans to bring the rest of the county papers online over the next few months. And with the Internet now available in many homes, at most libraries and in lots of urban “internet cafe’s,” it doesn't matter where you are in the state, country, or the world, you can now keep up to date with what is going on back home in Waukon.