Some time ago, we started down the path of a small redesign. And weive ended up doing something very different. Weive reinvented our products, and have begun to change our business to support them.
We started with a simple question: Given the resources, how would we render the most relevant and compelling local media experience possible?
As those ideas began to take shape–how to bring new web innovations into a local media experience in a way thatis useful for local audiences and further blurs the line between blog and online daily as well as how to use those features to bring ideas and people together in a massive conversationowe realized that the online ideas were only a part of the experience we wanted to create. We turned to our print product and started to think of ways to make reading it an even more rewarding experience and how to use it to build a larger, stronger and more diverse community online.
We took our concept to a bunch of people for their feedback and help. And in a little over two months, weill be able to share with you what weive come up with.
We bring it up now to give some context for the changes and announcements youill be hearing and reading about over the next several weeks.
- ONLINE:
Weire finishing development of a pretty cool platform that introduces powerful community building and content delivery tools to increase the utility of the online for folks who want to know whatis going as well as for those who want to meet others in their community who share their interests. - OFFLINE:
We have begun a substantial redesign of our print product so that it better serves online efforts and is an even richer experience onto itself. The frequency of the publication will increase to make it more topical. And its reach (circulation and distribution) will increase significantly as well. - BUSINESS/INFRASTRUCTURE:
The change in the products demanded an evolution of the business. To make that happen, weive engaged the help of leading local firms for their consul and services and solicited the advise of key national players in the technology and new media space. Weive also begun hiring and acquiring competencies against our new model and formed a new corporate entity to house Buffalo Rising and other projects we have in the works.
Youill notice some big changes over the next few months. Weill ask some of you to take a peek at what we have planned and give us additional feedback. And weill have further, more detailed announcements to make over the next few weeks.
So thank you for your valuable attention and participation thus farOeand please stick around. Instead of reporting all the exciting changes happening in our city, we hope to be one.