New interactive ‘Edition’ launching for Herald-Leader subscribers. What it features
Throughout my career, I’ve always believed the best media outlets, from daily newspapers serving their hometowns to larger outlets that cover stories from the U.S. and around the world, must constantly be committed to improvement.
One of my first editors at my hometown Coshocton Tribune back in Ohio often repeated a quote from Will Rogers, the noted cowboy columnist, actor and radio personality from a century ago: “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
I’ve always taken that wisdom to heart.
That’s why I’m excited to share big news about a new daily digital product that gets rolled out to Herald-Leader and kentucky.com subscribers today.
It’s a new, improved electronic edition that will be curated exclusively for you. Appropriately and simply, it’s called “Edition.”
In my short time here as executive editor (I arrived seven months ago this week) I’ve heard from plenty of subscribers who read the electronic version of the Herald-Leader, which lands in inboxes early each morning.
And along the way, I’ve read emails and fielded calls from those who say it’s unwieldy and cumbersome to use, even impersonal. I want you to know I’ve heard your feedback, as have my colleagues who spearhead digital products and online improvements from McClatchy newsrooms around the country.
On Wednesday morning, we launch “Edition.” It’s a new interactive, eEdition that spotlights the latest news (regardless of our restrictive, early-afternoon print deadline) and organizes our content in a newspaper-like way that is easy to navigate.
Edition will adapt to your screens, whether you’re using a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or traditional desktop computer. It also can be downloaded for offline reading.
It gives you the news when you want it, however you want to read it.
Here are a few highlights of Edition, which can be accessed from the top of kentucky.com, in our apps or through a daily email reminder:
The front page will feature the day’s most prominent stories with links to several other top articles.
Inside pages will offer a display of headlines for you to select what you want to read next. The benefit: No more flipping through page after page searching for what you want. With Edition, just click on the story you want to read and swipe to the next page to keep going.
You’ll find links to previous stories. Simply click on them to dig deeper into the topic or issue.
We have an award-winning visuals team here at the Herald-Leader. With Edition, you’ll be able to flip through all of their photos associated with a story.
Dozens of stories of additional national news and opinion pieces will still be there. But they will be organized in a way that will make them easier to navigate.
And, here’s a really cool feature: Edition will offer interactive puzzles, which will allow them to be solved right on the screen.
(For traditionalists, you’ll still be able to print the puzzles and solve them with your pencil at the kitchen table with that morning coffee.)
And for those still looking for the replica of our print newspaper, those pages will still be there, too, just deeper in the Edition.
It’s no secret that the habits of readers around the globe are changing.
And quickly.
I started my career as a 15-year-old high school sophomore writing on an old Underwood typewriter at my hometown newspaper and now, I’m leading a Pulitzer-winning newsroom that’s focused on delivering the biggest stories and headlines from across Kentucky on that smartphone in your pocket.
Will Rogers was right: We can’t just sit here, afraid of change.
Edition will be an interactive, personalized digital snapshot of the news most relevant to you. It offers hand-picked, interactive content all in one place.
It’s immersive, intuitive and, I’m confident, something you’ll truly enjoy.
I encourage you to use Edition every morning and supplement your desire for news updates and the latest headlines by visiting kentucky.com throughout the day.
We cover news as it happens. It’s all part of our 154-year commitment to serve you.
If you have questions or feedback about the Edition, please contact our Customer Care team at 1-800-999-8881.
As always, thanks for reading the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com.
