The NewsTimes.com you see today probably looks a bit different than the one you saw yesterday.
Make that a lot different.
The site you see today is the work of countless hours of work, both locally here in Connecticut and across Hearst Corporation.
There are so many new features that you might not notice them all at first. So we’ve put together a nice list of the big ones:
• A new, cleaner look. Our old site was, in a word, cluttered. We think you’ll love our new look. We’ve shed a lot of the excess to get back to the core mission of the site: To provide our readers with everything they need to know about their world, from Danbury and beyond.
• No more anonymous comments. We heard you. While we obviously encourage discussion, anonymous comments rarely add anything meaningful. On our new site, users are required to provide an e-mail address when they register. Once we verify its authenticity, readers are encouraged to leave comments on stories, photos, videos and blog posts.
• A robust look at our archives. Free of charge. On our old site, if you wanted any article older than going back two weeks, you had to pay a fee. Now, we’ve opened up our archives going back a full five years, free of charge. Want to follow our articles on the arrest and trial of James Galante? Just search for his name. Click on a person’s name to read everything we’ve written about them. Five years of Danbury history, on the house.
• An easier way to purchase reprinted photos. See a picture we’ve taken of you or a loved one that you just have to own a copy of? Just click the “Buy This Photo” link below the picture. It’s that easy.
• Way better search. Search isn’t just limited to articles anymore. Now, a search for, say, “Burke” will return all of our articles about Robert Burke, but also all of our pictures, videos and blog posts about the first selectman as well.
• Better multimedia. More slideshows. More videos. Our users click through our slideshows by the thousands every day, and our new site will give them bigger and better slideshows to explore.
Keep in mind that the site is still in “beta” mode, so you may see some weirdness here and there. If you do, please send us some feedback so we can take a look at it.
So click around! Explore the new site. I think you’re going to find it’s vastly better than our old one.
