Walter Pierce

TA-DA!

by Walter Pierce

Our new website debuts today.

Have you seen our all-new theind.com? If you’re reading this in print, you might not have.

We’ve been working on the new site for months in concert with Wehaa, a Wisconsin web-hosting company that is bringing innovation, accessibility and reader engagement to alternative media like us. Staff members Melissa Hebert, our production director, and Jenna Fontenot King, an account executive who is a whiz at social media, rolled up their sleeves and got to work on the new site over the summer.

And even from my Luddite vantage point, the new site is pretty neat and functional. It’s more navigable, and its responsive design conforms to any platform you visit it from — desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone.

We will be ramping up the use of photo galleries to enhance your experience on the site, and improved interfaces to special products like our bi-annual restaurant guide and our entertainment coverage will have search features and geo-location functions that are amazing.

Some newspaper websites like The Advertiser and New York Times have gone to a paywall — you must be an online, paid subscriber to access stories — although paywalls are easily breached by simply deleting cookies in your web browser associated with those sites, allowing your “trial” use to begin anew.

No plans for a paywall right now at IND Media. Instead, our hope is that quality content from top journalists will draw readers to theind.com and acadianabusiness.com and that advertisers will, as they increasingly are, recognize the value in reaching those readers. I’m not buttering you up when I observe that IND readers are the smartest, savviest anywhere. I’m buttering up advertisers.

If you still prefer the look of our print issues — what’s not to love? — you can download a free app from iTunes and Google to get e-editions on your desktop or in the palm of your hand, and our social media tools allow you to share articles, comment on them, rate them and email them to friends.

You’ll also notice a heavier presence on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit and LinkedIn by the publications and brands associated with IND Media: IND Monthly, ABiz, IND Family and IND Style.

For readers who find frequent consternation in our muckraking, snark and political perspective, well we’re just going to bug the hell out of you even more. For readers who turn to The IND, ABiz and our other products for relentlessly local coverage from a unique, unapologetic viewpoint, you’re welcome.