OPINIONS & EDITORIALS » SIMPLY PUT

Written by Mike Whittlesey, 01/26/2009

On April 30, 2003, The Progress Review announced the launch of a website with the purpose of serving as “an electronic community hub, a ‘one-stop shopping’ resource center for residents in the La Porte City area.” Over the past six years, visitors to theprogressreview.com have witnessed the evolution of the site, as it has grown to include The Progress Review Press Passes, which, in addition to local news and sports stories, have featured photo and video galleries.

The growth in popularity of these interactive features has not been without unique challenges, however. Throughout 2008, it became increasingly clear to us that the desire to post photo and video features in real-time would require technical expertise beyond what we could do “in-house.” The issue of utilizing The Progress Review’s website to be a user-friendly option for the community to report news items, milestones, calendar events and other information, also became increasingly important to us. We want the public to have 24/7 access to their locally-owned, community newspaper, despite our limited office hours.

Fortunately, our search for the skills needed to remake theprogressreview.com did not have to stray outside the city limits of La Porte City. The good folks at Spence Tech Solutions, who specialize in helping small businesses establish and maintain an online presence, have been working diligently to create a customized website based upon a wish list of features we provided. The end result is the rolling out of a fresh site based on the engine of a customized database that will drive several features visitors will enjoy.

Got a news event or photo you’d like to share with our readers? How about a wedding announcement or anniversary? The new site now allows any item of interest for publication to be forwarded to The Progress Review from the comfort of your personal computer, at any time of the day.

And as our staff continues to input data from past issues, visitors will be able to search the recent archives of The Progress Review. Future upgrades to the site will also allow for a more comprehensive online shopping experience, including the ability to place classified ads via the internet.

If you’ve not visited theprogressreview.com lately, you might want to take a look and click around the site. Additional features beyond what this space allows describing are in the works, and we can’t say enough about the service Mike and Dan Spence have provided. Behind the user-friendly layout of the website lies a technical jungle they have put together, piece by piece. And while the site is not totally complete, the staff at your locally owned, community newspaper, is already enjoying a streamlined workflow that makes us excited about our ability to better achieve the goal of providing you, the reader, with a community hub and one-stop shopping resource center you deserve.

Editor's Note: Spence Tech Solutions focuses on website design, hosting, and domain registration services. Their primary focus is helping small businesses or organizations establish on online presence with a quality, yet simple and straightforward website. They offer continued website support to help you manage the site and utilize the various tools as part of a basic hosting package (custom e-mails, visitor analytics, mailing lists, and more). Their designs are made in HTML/CSS and they also utilize PHP programming to help build content management functionality into designs, if needed. For more information, logon to spencetechsolutions.com.

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