Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008 | 2 a.m.
An overview of the site's new features
In a town that constantly reinvents itself, the Las Vegas Sun continues to do the same.
It started with a rethinking of the newspaper two years ago and takes a big leap forward today with the relaunch of the Sun’s Web site and a new world-class media strategy designed to deliver news and information for the next generation.
Go to www.lasvegassun.com and you’ll find:
- Constant updates of online-only blogs from the Sun’s writers who cover politics, gaming, crime, and cultural and sporting events in the city.
- Automated services to bring news, information and calendar events to your computer, your cell phone or other digital devices.
- A full range of multimedia, including high-definition video interviews, high-resolution slide shows, 360-degree audio/visual panoramas and interactive graphics.
- Innovative widgets that let you view multimedia full-screen on your computer, iPod or mobile phone or even show it off on the big screen in your living room.
- Interactive features that allow readers to have better contact with the Sun’s staff and with other readers.
The team includes:
- Dave Toplikar, new media managing editor. Before coming to the Sun, he worked for nearly 10 years as online editor for the national and international award-winning online news operation at the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, including several years with Rob Curley. The Lawrence site has won industry accolades as the best news site in the world, the best sports site and the best entertainment site. The Lawrence operation is considered to be one of the most converged operations in the country. It was featured in a lengthy New York Times story titled "The Newspaper of the Future."
- Doug Twyman, a software engineer who worked with Curley on Web sites for the Hannibal Courier-Post, which won numerous national and international journalism awards for its Mark Twain Web site. Twyman, who is senior new media systems administrator and software engineer, was one of the software engineers for Planet Discover, one of the leading search companies for traditional news sites. He has also worked in the aerospace industry on the heads-up display for the Boeing 777. And he worked on the distribution programming team at Wal-Mart.
- Josh Williams, new media projects editor, was a multimedia exhibit developer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. before coming to the Sun. Shortly before leaving D.C., he managed all the multimedia elements of the $60 million Asia Trail exhibit at the Smithsonian National Zoo, where his videos, photos and interactive kiosks are part of the permanent exhibit.
- Zach Wise, a visual journalist and former multimedia faculty member at the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. While teaching at Ohio University, he was the executive producer, along with Brian Storm of Mediastorm, on the award-winning Soul of Athens multimedia project and taught the classes that produced it. Prior to teaching at Ohio University, Wise was a photojournalism graduate student in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University and won several College Photographer of the Year awards for his multimedia photojournalism projects there.
- Trent Ogle, a videojournalist from Little Rock, Ark. He was the first videographer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state’s largest newspaper Web site. He also has more than 10 years of experience in broadcast television news. Trent played a key role in helping launch the FOX affiliate in Little Rock, Ark., in 2003 as the Chief Photographer with the first completely digital newsroom in Arkansas. He has won multiple National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Awards and Arkansas Associated Press Awards.
- Andy Samuelson, Web content editor, is the former editor of KUSports.com, which covers Kansas University sports for the Lawrence, Kan., Journal-World. KUSports.com has won numerous national journalism sports awards. Samuelson also worked at The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star.
- Tyson Evans, who joined the Sun two years ago, led the design effort on the new site. Previous to his work in Las Vegas, he worked as a designer at the Los Angeles Times and was editor in chief of the UCLA Daily Bruin.
“This is just the next step, albeit a very big one, in an overall plan that we believe will be the template for newspapers and media organizations across the country,” said Brian Greenspun, the Sun’s president and editor.
Greenspun said the ultimate goal is to serve readers who prefer getting their news and information not only in print or on their computers, but also on their cell phones or on other devices.
“The delivery of news and information via the Internet, on television, on your iPod, on your wristwatch, however it gets to people, is for real. And we needed to play a part in that,” Greenspun said.
Two years ago the Sun changed itself from a traditional daily newspaper to, essentially, a daily magazine, focusing on enterprise news coverage. The Sun’s stories explain, investigate, interpret and analyze, concentrating on issues vital to Las Vegas and Nevada, but exploring national and international issues as well.
“The Sun tells its readers what really happened, why it happened and whether the public benefited or lost out in the process,” Greenspun said. “It is unique in American journalism, and reader studies show our approach has been extraordinarily well-received in the Las Vegas market.”
The Sun has had a first-generation, noninteractive Web site for years.
To extend its reach beyond the print product, the Sun has been developing its new-media strategy, which involves cell phones, community publishing, multimedia and interactivity, for much of 2007.
“I cannot say that this is the be-all and end-all of Internet news content,” Greenspun said.
“But what I do believe is that we are going to be closer to it than anybody else in the country. And we plan to keep plugging away until we get it absolutely right.
“I know that we are probably going to take some criticism for being too far out on the edge, for trying too many things; for trying to get too sticky, if you will ... But I would rather be accused of being too far out than too far back. And it’s important to newspapers and media all over this country that we figure this out. And so the Las Vegas Sun, the Greenspun Media Group, will be at the forefront.”
One of Greenspun’s goals was to have a Web site ready to help showcase the Sun’s coverage of the Jan. 19 presidential caucuses in Nevada.
“There’s a lot of interest in what’s going on in Nevada right now, more so because of the results in this last week’s New Hampshire primary,” he said.
“So if ever there were an opportunity to show off what we have, this is it.”
The caucus site includes bios on the candidates, candidates’ views on issues, updated blog posts from the Sun’s political writers and interactive voter tools, including a candidate selector and issues trivia games.
To develop the new-media strategy, the Sun brought in a team of seasoned online journalists and Web developers from TV stations, newspapers and Web sites across the country.
“It wasn’t easy, but I don’t think that there is a team of talented people in this country that can match the Las Vegas Sun’s Internet team,” Greenspun said.
Greenspun said he went to a presentation a few months ago by Rob Curley, vice president of product development for Washingtonpost.NewsweekInteractive.
“And when I heard what Rob had to say about the future of newspapers and news organizations on the Internet I knew that I had to have what he was selling,” he said. “But since I couldn’t get Rob, I did the next best thing. And I think if you look at the people who populate the Sun’s Web site, you will find a dozen or more young people who have worked with Rob over the years, who know his mind and who know how to build Web sites and deliver content.”
Greenspun said what the Sun is doing with its new-media strategy hails from the Sun’s origins.
“What we are doing here, in my mind, is nothing more than what my father, Hank Greenspun, started in 1950 when Las Vegas already had a newspaper. He just believed there could be a better one,” he said. “There could be a newspaper more interested in finding the right kind of news and delivering it to people in the way they want to get it delivered so that they could be better informed and make better decisions about their lives.
“This is just the next step in that. We are trying to find a way to serve the generation of people who are getting their information in ways that have nothing to do with news on printed paper. That’s our quest. That’s our goal. I’m convinced we are going to reach it. And I think what we are launching today takes us a long way down that road.”
