September 2, 2003

Notes on Our Return, and Kevin Fanning

Goodbye August, hello September! It’s drizzling and cool in Brooklyn this morning, and we’re happy to see the hot weather go. (But of course, it will be back.) The summer publishing schedule is over, daily publishing resumes, and with it, some new improvements around the site. A quick guide to what’s changed:

1. Stories now have improved functionality: you’ll see in the right column an area called Article Tools. There you’ll find a link to the author’s archive, plus our new printer-friendly page format.

2. There have been some design tweaks. We’ll let those who really care go find them for themselves.

3. Categories for stories have changed. To review our new categories (and some points about what we do, and why) go see the revised Masthead page. These changes are still being implemented, and may take some time to be finished. Also, the Gossip! section has been killed for the time being; for those who thirst, why not try rocking with your Gawk out?

4a. And while you’re there, please note that we now have illustrations for all our regular contributors, including the one and only Kevin Fanning, author of today’s story ‘What I Did on my Summer Vacation.’ It’s a huge pleasure and honor for Andrew and I to welcome Kevin to the TMN-family. You may know him from his stories published here, or in the many chapters of WhyGodWhy. Either way, he’s a tremendous talent and as Paul so often says, ‘he’s gotta be a genius in some fashion.’ So, Kevin, welcome.

4b. The Morning News Shebang All-Get-Out Roast and Rip-Roaring Dukes, Duchesses, and Delinquent Dons Party For All Writers, Readers, and Guests, has been scheduled for September 20th, details to come.

5. Starting today, you will begin seeing Google AdSense banners appear on select pages around The Morning News. These ads will be relevant to the page’s content, and hopefully unobtrusive to your reading experience.

6. We have thought long and hard about this, and decided, it is time. Those who would like to support The Morning News by viewing and clicking an ad may do so. Those who would like to hide the banners may also do so.

7. This way, you can make your own choice as to your level of support.

8. The cloaking technology comes from our crack Technical Director Dan Benjamin, who designed it as a reply to those who hate advertising: if you find the ads so distracting that you never want to see them again, you can click the hide/show link at the top of the banner to forever remove it from your sight. That’s your choice.

9. (And just try doing that with the ‘special advertising section cleverly designed in the same font as the surrounding articles, sucker’ in your big glossy magazine.)

10. We are still independent, only now we will be better equipped to stay that way. Google’s AdSystem gives us the option to block certain despicable corporations – so we’re happy about that – and being editorial-design snobs, we are very happy with their technology and aesthetics compared to the current face of Internet advertising. You will never see any flashy banners on TMN.

11. Hopefully, these ads will help us stay steady on our current course, grow to include some features (and people) we’ve been dreaming about, and continue to bring you the site you like. We have many new features in store, and lots of great articles lined up for fall. We are in it for the long-run, and we hope you are too.

12. So welcome back to The Morning News and our new BMWs – as always, feel free to get in touch and let us know what you think.

#2-Equipped,
Rosecrans