The modern online news site

I was just taking a closer look at the homepage of the Straits Times news site. I realised how much it’s changed from its earlier days, and it has now taken on a new dimension.

Besides the ‘traditional’ web news articles, the site has now incorporated various other new media platforms: blogs; forums; its video channel, RazorTV, its citizen journalist portal, Stomp; and even its online classifieds portal, ST701.

This multi-dimensional and multi-sensory approach to news sites seems to be the way to go, to reach out to a more IT and new media-savvy ‘readership’.

Not only that, with the online sales portal, Mocca.com, launching its FULL THROTTLE MocCarnival , an auto and car enthusiast event last Sunday on 23 Nov, it seems like a new trend has started, with online events spilling over into reality.

Newspapers like Straits Times and Today go Web 2.0

Popular local newspapers The Straits Times and Today have undergone some facelift and more! Their digital editions are going even more high-tech!

The Straits Times digital html version is now available for free for two weeks from 8 August. To complement their news, they now have RazorTV to bring videos, podcasts, blogs and forums to their viewers as well, probably inspired by the success of their citizenship-journalism portal Stomp.

Despite having many online and digital editions of publications, many still read the print versions. If not, all the print newspapers and magazines would have gone out of business long ago! Knowing that readers still prefer print versions, and also knowing that readers now are constantly on the move and want convenience and portability in their lives, the people at Today now have the Today Online Easy Reader  that allows us to read the digital edition and see it the way as you read it on print!

The application allows you to save the copy on your laptop and PC and read it any time and anywhere, and because of an intelligent feature, it will adjust the page to fit your screen so you never need to scroll!

I’m looking foward to many more Web 2.0 innovations!