Down River – Nov. 21 2014

By John Lipez

 

We’re Excited:

Part of the charm of Lock Haven Mayor Rick Vilello is when he gets excited, he tells you right up front that he is, in fact, excited. We’ve heard this proclamation from his honor on a number of occasions, from that creative land swap/sale for a new hotel where Painter Stadium once stood, up to and including the approaching completion of the city’s new sewage treatment plant.

Down River historically has been a little more reticent in proclaiming communication-related development as causing excitement, but I am comfortable using the “I’m excited” Vilello-ism to tell you what The Record is up to:

You should know by now The Record, Clinton County’s oldest print publication, dating all the way back to just after the Civil War, is on the cusp of plunging headfirst into the social networking/online world of today.

In fact your first look at our new online edition of “therecord-online” was to occur on Tuesday evening of this week and if you’re not already aware, please go online and check it out.

It is a work in progress and will only get better but our Butch Miller, with his decades of experience in print/photography/video is putting together something all of Clinton County can be proud of.

In recent decades The Record, after a long run as a Renovo-based daily, has been a county-oriented weekly. And our print edition will continue as just that.

But as of this week, therecord-online will provide county residents with a daily presence to go along with, compliment, and expand on our weekly print offering.

We know an expanded Record staff, with strong Clinton County roots, with Clinton County ownership, will continue to create a viable, desired print product for our readers.

What excites us is the availability of the online edition designed to inform and entertain a new generation of prospective customers, the computer savvy, the iPad savvy, the smartphone savvy among us.

And the online edition provides a virtually limitless sphere to share information. Whereas the once-a-week print Record most weeks has been 16 pages and limited by the confines of those 16 pages as to the amount of editorial content and advertising content, the online Record won’t be cramped by those print parameters.

You’ll find lots of new things to like about the online Record, from local sports scores, news happenings, social events, obituaries and much more; as a for instance, when there is a local emergency, you’ll be notified through the online Record. We’ll be adding to and adjusting as we move along; you’ll need to check it out for yourself to see some of the advances unique to online news presentation here in Clinton County.

And we can’t emphasize too much, the above phrase “here in Clinton County.” The online Record, as the print Record, is aimed at the residents of Clinton County, not Bellefonte or Milesburg in Centre County, not Jersey Shore or Williamsport in Lycoming County.

There is enough going on in our home county to keep our staff busy and you informed.

Let it be noted also we seek and value your participation. The online Record will be a two-way operation. You and organizations you represent will be encouraged to participate in our Clinton County online offering.

Instructions will be forthcoming for submitting news and pictures of a community interest. And we encourage your comments on stories and opinion pieces you’ll be reading in the online edition.

But one thing we will not allow is anonymous offerings. If you have an opinion, a response to a story or column, we want to hear from you. But we reserve the right to filter out anonymous, unsubstantiated hearsay.

Ground rules in this area will be posted very shortly, but again let me assure you, blind potshots will never see the light of day in either our print edition or our online edition. If you feel strongly about some community issue, stand behind it. That has been the standard in Down River and in The Record for at least the last 20 years and that policy will continue.

In the meantime we welcome your suggestions for online content. Everything is fair game, anything that might have a community-wide interest.

Beyond local news and entertainment, local sports coverage from both ends of the county will be a focus; school-related events of all kinds will be highlighted, again from the Potter County line to the Winter Road in Sugar Valley.

We very much want you to be a Record reader and a Record player.

This is in fact an exciting time for The Record; our old website was an embarrassment, posted four or so years ago and sitting there dormant.

Our new offering is and will be far from dormant and will fill a need for providing information for the technologically savvy among Clinton County residents and any younger ex-Clinton County residents who have moved away but want to stay in touch with happenings back home.

Please tell us what you think; help us grow and continue to serve the community. This is exciting and we want you to be part of it!