To our users,

Welcome back to campus for the fall 2007 semester. I hope everyone enjoyed the summer vacation and is ready for a productive school year. Upon your recent visit to our Web site, you may have noticed some changes. I want to chronicle the process we’ve gone through to bring you the product you’re seeing now.

Amidst a time of uncertainty about the future of news media, the Northern Star has indeed redesigned its Web site for the fall 2007 semester and completely changed the way it covers news. Our first and foremost priority now is the Web site. News will now break to the Web first and be updated throughout the day, allowing you to track the progress of a story from breaking news to print.

Additionally, we will now increase the amount of supplemental content to our stories, commonly referred to as “multimedia.” These elements may consist of blogs, photo slideshows, Podcasts, maps, charts and other graphics. We will add these elements to articles when they contribute additional appropriate information. Ultimately, we want to continue to cover stories in the best way possible and in a way that gives you, the reader, the information you need.

We invite you to continue to check back with us on a daily basis, as the site will change frequently throughout the day when news breaks or when new information is available to update a past story. In the meantime, if you have any comments or concerns you’d like to share, please feel free to contact me using the information below.

Thanks for your continued interest in the Northern Star. I look forward to bringing you the news.

Justin Smith

Editor, northernstar.info

[email protected]

(815) 753-9642