erm... "news"?

[Shigga]

Either the site that is displayed on my browser window is somehow malfunctioning, or the last news that were postet on whiskymag.com and in the News Forum was on Sun 30 Nov 2003. Surely there must be some news in the whisky world during the two and a half month (!) since the last post? Is this website (portal) just a neglected offspring of the print magazine? Or am I just the only one that misses some really up-to-date newsfeed?

Regards,

S.

[Matt2]

Is this website (portal) just a neglected offspring of the print magazine?

Hi Shigga,

I hope not, although it certainly is an offspring of the magazine, the print magazine does take priority.

The news section was going to mirror the news in the magazine and therefore only updated with new issues every couple of months.

I think some of the dates have been messed up somewhere, sure there was some news posted a few weeks ago.

It's on the list of things to talk about and I am sure over the next month or so things will improve in this section. It will either be a small number of regular postings from WM, or lots of links to news on other sites and resources.

What would you like to see ?

Matt.

[Shigga]

What I would really like to see is a couple of news every week from the whiskyworld on this site, not some plain links to other resources. The thing with linked news is, they tend to change the URL and then you have to search the other site and so on. I mean you won't lose any subscribers if you post regular news on this site, the newsmags do it all the time. I would even go so far as to say that you will rather win some new subscribers, especially (younger) ones that have a closer relation to the internet, this becomes more and more important imho.
Right now this site feels like an unfinished puzzle where the last part is missing- somehow incomplete. Personally, I have used the direct link to the forum in my browser favourites for some time now, because there was nothing else up to date on the site to interest me except for the whiskies ot the world which is really super. So I guess whiskymag.com could gain some more pagehits (at least from me ) with some up-to-date news.

[Matt2]

Hi Shigga,

It seems there is a batch of online news that does the rounds each week. Strange that some sites can get away with publishing these stories in full. I was quoted prices from £100 - £2500 per month per article

I agree a few stories each week from the WM team would be very good for this site, and I will keep pushing for it.

I think the missing bit of the puzzle fell behind the sofa, may have been sucked up by the hoover

[Shigga]

a fee of up to £2500 per month per article? Get yourself your own online-editor and rewrite the news before you post them. that should come cheaper than the fee. ^^
Thanks I am positively looking forward to the "new news"!
Btw are there any other voices out there who agree with me in this? plz post your opinion/comments

[Shigga]

just saw the new news...great, thx! gimme more!

[si_peacock]

I agree. The more news posted here, the more 'live' the forum will feel and the whole site will become much more sticky.

I know I was pleased to see all the stories that Kate has posted over the last few days. Completely understand the problems with pre-pub new stories and that sort of thing. Have epxerienced much of the same as I work for a subscription publisher and we have online services.

The good thing about the online medium is that it is so flexible. To be honest, if used in the right way this forum could generate news for the magazine. Top level articles that go on to be printed in more depth would keep people keen but not to the detriment of the printed articles.

Keep up the recent good work. I look forward to reading more.

Si