Friday, March 10, 2006
Small Newspaper, Big Web Site
A high-calibre Web site is often the last thing on the mind of small, budget-strapped community newspaper operation. But a tiny newspaper in an obscure town at the tip of the Africa is bucking the trend.
Grocott's Mail is South Africa's oldest independent newspaper, founded in the early 1800s in the small university town of Grahamstown. The community newspaper was recently acquired by the local university's journalism school, making it one of the few commercially-run town newspapers in the world owned and run by a J-school. As a result, the tiny newspaper operation has the resources to build its first Web site.
Grocott's Mail Digital Edition is a world-class, feature-rich Web site, professionally designed, good looking, and interactive. It is headed by fellow E-media Tidbits contributor Vince Maher and his team of students. The site's articles include video and audio features and claims to have citizen journalism "integrated directly into its newsroom workflow." It also boasts a "collaborative filtering engine with a graphic visualisation which recommends content to readers based on their similarity to other users" on its homepage, which is an interesting, if not a little gimicky, take on navigation.
Don't take my word for it, go
see for yourself.
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