Star to ring in change

By Kelly Bauer

When the Northern Star returns in the spring, it will be with a plan for a bold new future.

The changes we’ll make will be wide-ranging: The Star’s website, NorthernStar.info, will be updated throughout the day; staff members will be required to utilize Twitter; and the Star’s website will be revamped and its content will supplement that offered in the newspaper.

The Northern Star will continue to be a daily. We’ll print Monday to Thursday, and we’ll have the stories you love. The website will continue to feature these stories, but will also have exclusive content.

For example, Scene’s print edition will feature interviews with local bands, concert coverage, recipes and more. Online, Scene will also offer TV and album reviews, among other things.

The website will also feature more news throughout the day. In the past, we’ve focused on using our website to release breaking news; come spring, though, you should check it throughout the day for news coverage and analysis, features, Q&As and other stories.

We’ll also focus more on video series and stories than using video to cover events and meetings. You can already see a portion of this change in the recently launched This Week in Corn, a comedic spin on national news.

And as staff members will be required to use Twitter, you can follow them for breaking news and reader-writer interaction. We’ll answer your questions, listen to your story tips and hear your take on the stories we write.

Breaking news will also be released with push notifications through our app, which is available through the iTunes App Store and the Google Store.

You’ll see each of our handles beside our byline, as you already see with those of us who have adopted Twitter. You can also follow the Star as @NIUNorthernStar.

The Star has won numerous awards for its print and Web products, and we launched an app in late August. We’ll build upon that foundation as we take our next steps in becoming an industry-leading news provider.