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Pilot launches new mobile-friendly website

by Matt Baldwin / Whitefish Pilot
| November 20, 2013 9:00 PM

Born in the 70s, raised in the 90s. Today’s thirty-somethings have never been an easy demographic to pin down as belonging to any one social generation.

We’re on the outskirts of Generation X, and too old to be grouped with the Millennials. Our parents are Baby Boomers. Our grandparents the Greatest Generation.

Somehow we’ve fallen between the cracks of generational stereotypes.

Maybe we’re simply the lost generation — bouncing around planet Earth with vivid memories of life before the Internet, yet unable to fathom life without an iPhone.

Thirty-somethings grew up with a daily newspaper delivered to the front door every morning.

For myself it was The Charlotte Observer. I’d grab the sports section and mull over the NBA box scores while wolfing down a bowl of Cheerios before school. Mom would take the front page, sip coffee and scan the national headlines.

Our weekly hometown newspaper covered the happenings in our rural corner of Appalachia. Who got married? Who had a baby? Who was arrested? It even provided us with a few treasured fridge shots from my seasons on the high school soccer team.

Fast forward to today, and the way most of us consume news has drastically changed.

National headlines are delivered via smartphone. I have an app to follow the Lakers every move, an app for pinpoint snow forecasts, and CNN pushes me breaking news alerts. Social media newsfeeds on Facebook and Twitter provide an endless stream of up-to-the-second commentary.

I still pore over basketball box scores in the daily paper, and most Sundays you’ll find me holed up in Coffee Traders with a thick New York Times. Old habits are hard to break.

But there’s no denying that my media consumption has shifted more toward instant updates delivered on the go.

Newsprint has always dominated at the hyperlocal level. Yet more often, small newsrooms like the Whitefish Pilot are asked to be equally as tech savvy as the big boys.

You want scores from the Bulldog game as it happens. Breaking news can’t wait until next Wednesday’s edition. Articles with online extras should be the norm.

It’s time we start to accommodate the changing news habits of our readers.

In the coming weeks, the Pilot will be rolling out a revamped website that is totally mobile friendly. Local news stories, photos, and videos will be posted as they happen. Expect daily updates and articles that only appear online.

At the beginning of next year, all of our online or mobile subscribers will have exclusive access to this content. Signing up is easy. Just create a login on our homepage and you’ll have free access for the next few months while we get the site up and rolling.

Don’t worry, the print edition is here to stay — fridge shots will never go out of style. But for our readers who prefer to consume news on the go — like myself — our new media offerings should be just what you’ve asked us for.

If there’s something you’d like to see us offer, please let me know.

One thing that won’t change is our commitment to hyperlocal news and covering Whitefish in a way that no other media outlet does. You’ll still see us on the sideline of every Bulldog game and in the front row of every city council meeting. Now it’s up to you whether you read us in print, online, on your smartphone or a tablet.

— Matt Baldwin is editor of the Pilot