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Today, LkldNow launches a technology upgrade and total redesign of our website, LkldNow.com.
For several years we have wanted to modernize our website to bring a more sophisticated presentation of news, display photos better, improve readability and reflect the ways we have evolved as a news organization.
We were finally able to update the website now thanks to a Sustainable Publishing Solutions grant from the Knight Foundation.
Some of the reasons we are excited about the website updates:
- Readability. The headlines and text are larger, darker and better proportioned.
- Photo display. Sometimes it feels like we’re been hiding our excellent photos with the “old” design. Photos are much more prominent on our new home page and article pages.
- Related articles. We have better and more attractive options to highlight articles related to the one you’re reading.
- Our original reporting is front and center in the new design and curated articles take a smaller, secondary role.
- Mobile friendly. From the beginning, our website was designed to work well on mobile devices, which is where a majority of our readers encounter our news. The new site enhances the user experience for cellphone reading.
- More at a glance. We’ll be able to quickly adjust our home page design according to news demands. Our default design shows more news on the first screen of the home page when viewed on a computer or tablet.
- Sponsor opportunities increase for local businesses and organizations, including a lower-cost category sponsorship.
LkldNow was one of 25 independent news organizations that were awarded the Knight publishing grants earlier this year as part of a nationwide competitive process.
The grant allowed LkldNow move our website to Newspack , a publishing platform built for small and medium-sized news organizations that incorporates best practices for presenting news and growing readership.
Newspack is a part of Automattic , the company behind WordPress, which powers LkldNow and 455 million other websites.
The Newspack staff and the nearly 200 participating news organizations include some of the best minds in independent news publishing and there’s a huge focus on collaboration and problem solving. The staff has been very helpful in our transition to a new platform.
We hope you’ll like the new design, but we also recognize that sometimes change takes a while to get used to. If you have any reactions, questions or suggestions, please send us an email and we’ll respond.
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