By Jeff Poole
Managing Editor
Published: April 3, 2008

Some of you may have noticed that the Orange County Review website (http://www.orangenews.com) looks a little different this week than it did a week ago.
It wasn’t an accident.
Media General, which owns the Review and dozens of newspapers throughout the southeast, launched a corporate initiative to remodel its websites to remain competitive in ever-changing media markets.
News–and how it’s delivered–has changed dramatically.
Fifty years ago, people listened to the radio and read evening newspapers. Even small communities had daily newspapers that delivered a blend of local content and national news.
Later, television became the more popular news medium as evening papers folded into morning papers and radios moved toward automation.
Then, the Internet.
Suddenly, the news niches that radio, television and newspapers had carved were cast open and the rules changed.
People could tailor their news to themselves. They didn’t have to rely on the media to prioritize it for them. Instead, the reader decided how best to receive his or her news and whether they’d prefer video, audio or print (most likely a blend of all three.)
As larger media struggled, local newspapers–in particular–thrived. Our content generally isn’t on the Internet. We provide the kind of hyper-local news that’s not available online unless we put it there.
That brings us to where we are today.
The Review’s new website is a template Media General applies across the board–for the most part.
The good news is the new website allows for reader reaction and participation, while giving us more control over what we post and when we post.
The bad news is, we’re still a news staff of three who are figuring out how to blend a stronger online presence with the print version you read each week.
In the interim, the web folks with Media General are posting content to guarantee there is something available in all the tabs on the new site. In some cases, this is not local content, which has been our hallmark and which we fiercely defend.
Please be patient. As we move forward, we’ll post more exclusively local content which you find in the Review and relegate the regional news to available links.
Just as importantly, we’re still trying to fix our online obituaries. We realize this is a popular online component and hope to have that resolved in the near future.
This is a work in progress. We welcome your feedback and suggestions.
We’ve maintained all along that this is your newspaper. Well, it’s your website too.