The Tryon Daily Bulletin launched an enhanced website today for subscribers, with a two-week free trial for non-subscribers.
Working with Tryon firms High Tech House Call and Kiveo, the Bulletin designed a website that makes the entire print edition available online and also features color photo galleries, local video, enhanced search capabilities and individual news pages for area towns.
The initial unveiling of the new site, still located at www.tryondailybulletin.com, will be open to all readers for the first two weeks. Visitors to the site will first see a public landing page displaying top headlines, Bulletin classifieds, and the Appointments equestrian lifestyle section.
Clicking through with the free trial log-in, readers will find all the Tryon Daily Bulletin print content and more. After the initial period, only subscribers will continue to have full access.
This is Phase I, said Bulletin publisher Jeff Byrd, In coming months, we will be adding to the offerings online, using the unique capabilities of the web to compliment the Bulletin in serving the information needs of Polk County, Landrum, Campobello, and Gowensville.
The unique capabilities of the daily print edition have been evident for 82 years and will continue.
The new version of the worlds smallest daily web site will allow the Bulletin to upload news items in real time, including video, color photographs, and complete versions of print stories. Viewers can now read the online version in typical web browser format, or in a page view format, each page of the e-edition just as it appears in print.
In the past, for our online edition, we only featured a thin slice of print edition, offerings from just a few key categories such as news and entertainment, Byrd said. Now everything all the community news, letters to the editor, columns will appear online as well as in print for subscribers.
The Bulletin was founded in 1928 and has remained uniquely local and largely written by community contributors from more than 100 of the areas clubs and organizations, the foundation of the entertainment, arts and civic life of the Thermal Belt community.
The paper has also for the past 20 years upheld a strong journalistic responsibility with staff reporters covering 14 local government boards and commissions monthly, as well as crime and court stories.
Of course, the TDB also covers local sports and breaking news and features from Green Creek to Saluda, Sunny View to Landrum, Pea Ridge to Tryon, and everywhere in between.
All advertisers in the print edition will appear in the page-by-page view online. Consumers will benefit by seeing the daily news of the local marketplace more often in more places.
For a bit of nostalgia, a 1930s Universal Studios Stranger than Fiction newsreel featuring the Tryon Daily Bulletin is viewable from the public landing page. Along with this historic film, links to accounts of the unique and quirky history of The Worlds Smallest Daily Newspaper will be available along with a list of subscriber benefits.
During the trial period visitors can access the entire site. After the trial period, all Tryon Daily Bulletin subscribers will log in with the subscriber number found on their home delivery mailing-label. Subscribers will receive the print edition home-delivered and will have full access to the web site until their subscription expires.
Yearly subscriptions to the Bulletin will remain $60, or $5 per month by Easy Pay, for the combination print and online subscription. Subscriptions can be purchased online at www.tryondailybulletin.com/subscriptions or by calling 828-859-9151.
The Bulletin is in the 80 percent of all American newspapers with circulations of 15,000 or less who are going strong, Byrd said. 86 million Americans rely upon these small community newspapers to maintain the informed electorate upon which our democracy stands, and for the community information that keeps us involved, active, having fun and doing things together.