E-edition vs website, what does it really matter?
Many newspapers that offer a digital option to the printed paper only offer an E-edition. An e-edition is the easiest and most cost-effective digital version of a newspaper. When we put together the pages of a newspaper for print, the files are in standard PDF (portable document format) form. The PDFs of our pages are sent to print. Those same PDFs can be placed online as an e-edition with no extra effort. In most cases, an individual e-edition issue is only available for one week, until the next issue is posted online. And what’s included within that e-edition will not show up in online searches (certainly not beyond the one week of its life online).
A website requires more work, and more expense. Everything within a website is searchable (and, more importantly, findable) through online searches, for the life of the website. A website can be a repository of years worth of stories and photos that have appeared in the printed version of the newspaper.
The Tri-County News today has the best of both worlds. A year ago, we added an e-edition and the ability to subscribe to our newspaper digitally – either digital only or together with the print newspaper. We’ve already utilized this feature at least twice this winter, posting the e-edition online and making it open without a paid subscription because of weather delays to delivery of the printed paper. Everyone has access to our website, and we encourage you to go to www.-tricountynews.comand register as a user (that costs nothing); set up a login username and password, and you’re able to log in at any time (although access to much of the content is limited now to paid subscribers, there is still much important content available to all).
An advantage of an e-edition is that it shows the actual pages of the newspaper, just as they are printed. You see the layout as it was intended for readers, and you see the advertisements that our advertisers pay for you to see.
Our website goes far beyond an e-edition, however. The Tri-County News website began in 2000, before I even owned the newspaper. Nearly every article and obituary (and many of the photos) going back at least to 2003 is all there, easily searchable and findable. A few things may have been lost along the way, with changes in website hosting and programming on their end. But nearly everything that’s been posted there… is still there.
A subscription to the digital version of the Tri-County News includes the e-edition, but it also includes access to everything ever posted to our website over the years. Everything.
If you still like reading us on paper (and we love you all!), for $10 extra a year you can have the best of both worlds: a printed Tri-County News mailed to you each week PLUS access to everything on our website.
We invite you to visit and use our website, complete with a weekly e-edition and 20+ years of content. Register on the website; FREETRIAL is the coupon, and “Online only – ONE MONTH TRIAL” is the subscription option. (I set up the trial subscription and coupon myself, and I hope I got it all correct. If you have any problems after you register, shoot me an email and I can set it up for you from here.)
Jean Matua, Editor editor@tricountynews.com