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If you’ve ever had a few days to make a local move — say to another house just across town or even down the street — you know the feeling. As you get some of your possessions into the new place, you’re living in two worlds, both disorganized.
The Triplicate is going through a similar experience as we relocate to a new residence in cyber-space. If you go to triplicate.com, you’ll be invited to check out the new digs. It’s an airier, more modern-looking Web site, full of potential and room to grow.
Remember, however, that right now it’s like that new house filling up
with boxes. As we’re moving, we’ve kept track of the really essential
stuff, like local news, but it’ll take awhile to put the rest of the
furnishings in just the right spot.
Heck, I’m not even sure where some of the stuff is right now. The
professional movers — up in Bend, Ore., at the headquarters of Western
Communications — assure us that everything from the old place is coming
over. But when I last looked at the “online extras,” I saw only the
tsunami safety information. Where’s the rest of those information
packages we feature down the left side of our old home page? Around
here someplace ...
No one enjoys the actual process of moving, of course, but if the new
environment offers additional features (an ocean view is always nice),
it’s worth the trouble. Already on the new Web site, you can click on
the weather information at the upper right and immediately see current
and recent conditions at four spots along U.S. Highway 101 and one on
U.S. Highway 199 (which still looks like a winter wonderland just south
of the Oregon border as of my Monday viewing).
You can respond to a poll question and see the accumulating Triplicate
reader results. You can manage your subscription account on-line.
Coming soon, we’ll be able to offer electronic subscriptions to The
Triplicate that will give readers access to local news coverage the
same day it appears in print. Until then, we’ll maintain the the
current one-day delay in posting local stories on-line. Our economic
survival, after all, depends not just on advertising but also on having
paying customers as readers. The exception is significant breaking news
that we will post immediately — such as last week’s twin tragedies
involving one person dying outside in the frigid cold and another being
swept off the breakwater.
Eventually, many experts predict, newspapers will be more a product of
the Internet than the printing press. In a struggling industry, some
newspapers have already reduced or eliminated their printed products.
Rest assured that the paper version of The Triplicate will not
disappear into cyber-space anytime soon.
I envision a future in which technology allows us to merge the print
and electronic editions. Imaging holding a single, pliable page in your
hands, complete with wireless controls that allow you to “turn” the
page or get an instant update. I cherish the idea, because it would
preserve the concept of in-depth print journalism — something essential
to a thriving civilization — in a computer age.
In the meantime, take a spin around the new Web site and drop us a line
at
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to let us know what you think of it so far.
Or, ignore all this and read us in print.
We’re here to serve.
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Opinion 
