If you have visited queenscourier.com over the past few weeks you may have done a double take. We have launched a new website with a fresh, interactive feel and are hoping you will find it easy to look at and even easier to navigate.
With the creation of our new website, The Queens Courier family of publications continues its tradition of aiming to provide the most comprehensive coverage in all of Queens County. Our goal is simple: To be your No. 1 source of local information. In order to do so we have re-fashioned our website into an innovative and informative vehicle of 21st Century journalism.
We will continue to feature our publications’ award-winning print content, but we have taken the web site a few steps further by incorporating multimedia and interactive elements. The new queenscourier.com will be updated everyday with new stories and content.
We have broken away from the pack by becoming the only local newspaper in the New York metropolitan market to implement local video content. Our web site also features audio slideshows on a wide range of topics. This new multimedia content is an exciting and intriguing new way for you to experience and benefit from our reporting.
We have expanded our menu of information on qns.com with the addition of content from our other publications. Our web site is now home to health information from Healthwise; local business news from Queens Business Today; and Spanish language content from El Correo de Queens.
Our new blogs offer multiple channels of expression; they are a way to access new opinions, as well as forums to broadcast your thoughts and attitudes on everything from local sports, to politics, to civics, to the arts, to community issues. Our blogs are your sounding board because you are the true voice of the borough.
Queenscourier.com’s new interactive photo galleries are more than just a display of our photography—they are a place for you to become involved by submitting your photos. User-interaction is at the core of our new website and we hope you will have no reservations in getting involved.
Our interactive calendar of events allows you to upload all of your community, civic, arts and business listings directly onto the site. Events are listed by day and searched for by ‘type.’
In an effort to become even more localized, we will be providing you with a unique page for every community in the borough. As you can see, we have already launched our Bayside page, and we will be unveiling our guides to other Queens communities very soon. We hope you will use these pages as virtual community centers, enabling you to search for a community organization or service, find out about local political representation or neighborhood stats like crime and demographics, or stay in the loop on local news, restaurants, real estate and commerce. If you don’t see your organization on one of our lists, please let us know!
Our website even has a Google search box, information on where to find the cheapest gas, a link to weather reports, as well as a link to a live feed from traffic cameras keeping watch over the borough’s busiest highways.
At The Queens Courier, “We’re All About You.” Tell us what you like, what you don’t like and, most importantly, what you would like to see. We look forward to hearing from you! Email us at webmaster@queenscourier.com.
Until then, please take a look around. We hope you’ll stay a while.
VIDEOS/AUDIO SLIDESHOWS
The revamped queenscourier.com web site features video to go along with our award-winning stories. Our local videos and audio slideshows offer you unparalleled perspectives. We have placed our video content on virtually every page on the new queenscourier.com so that it’s always at your fingertips. Moreover, we add content throughout the week so there are constantly new videos for you to watch and enjoy.
Simply click ‘play’ on the video box on our homepage to watch the “featured” video; or select “Galleries” > “Video” from the red navigation bar across the top of our web site to access all of our videos and audio slideshows.
Watch for references within our stories to additional multimedia content such as videos, audio slideshows, and photos on queenscourier.com.
Step into the action with high school sports highlights and player and coach interviews; transport yourself onto the floors of our annual events like the Health & Wellness Expo; watch our feature content to gain an additional perspective on what you read in print.
For those of you who read our groundbreaking series “Ghost Workers” in print, stay tuned for a four-part series of “Ghost Workers” in video, right on our homepage over the next few weeks.
From hard news, to entertainment and events, we have got you covered through motion, sound and images!
BLOGS
We have assembled a knowledgeable group of bloggers, who post their thoughts and opinions in columns that appear weekly and bi-weekly on queenscourier.com. Their blog postings are meant to create a dialogue, so don’t be shy! Offer your feedback or read the existing chain of responses by simply clicking “Read or post comments.”
Our bloggers include former Borough President Claire Shulman, civic leaders and even individuals who have been avid letter writers to The Queens Courier and many other publications for decades. Our bloggers offer fresh and distinctive viewpoints on community topics, civics, high school sports and the arts, and provide a sounding board for users to respond and react. You can count on our blogs to get people talking.
Access each blog on the bottom left of our homepage or browse all of our offerings directly on our homepage or via “Galleries” > “Blogs” from the red navigation bar across the top of each page within queenscourier.com.
INTERACTIVE PHOTO GALLERIES
In addition to highlighting many of our favorite photos that we have published in our print editions, the photo galleries on queenscourier.com are also the place where we showcase our online exclusives. Visit queenscourier.com for photos on topics ranging from sports, to the arts, to additional never-before-published photos from stories you read in our papers.
Perhaps more important is that our galleries are not just for our use - they are interactive channels of expression for you, our users. Photographers of all stripes can upload their own photographs to participate in contests as well as to simply share their work in our “You Pic” gallery. You can upload directly onto the website and you can even rate each other’s photos!
Visit “Galleries” > “Photos” from the red navigation bar across the top of our web site to access all of our galleries.
FEATURED ONLINE CONTENT
Be sure to read the forthcoming weekly column in our newspapers highlighting different sections of our web site, queenscourier.com. Remember that we need your help to become the best community newspaper web site around! Email your comments and concerns to webmaster@queenscourier.com.
