Jewish Journal/Boston North To Launch Interactive Web site

The following article is from the Jewish Journal, a media partner of New England Ethnic News.

The Jewish Journal/Boston North is preparing to launch its new online Web portal, giving the newspaper, local agencies, temples and readers a stronger and immediate voice in the community.

After nearly 18 months of research, the newspaper's leadership is poised to go online with Web-based tools that will give the Journal staff the ability to post stories as they occur and allow readers to post their comments to be read online.

No longer will the paper be restricted by space and time, state the architects of the new online product, Journal vice president Robert Powell and Journal board member David Greenberg.

They have been working to create what will be an entirely new online portal for the Jewish community north of Boston and beyond. The site is not simply an online version of the newspaper.

Rather, the site is news plus other functions and features, including a robust calendar, a community forum featuring an online book club/read group, a section in which to conduct commerce and meet the Journal advertisers and sponsors, and a section that will provide education.

It will not replace the hard copy version, which will continue to be mailed to residences and left in news bins.

Presently, the Journal online (at www.jewishjournal.org) duplicates the hard copy but adds online updates approximately twice a week. The [new] site will be launched in two phases.

In phase one, the new site will feature breaking news stories when they happen and update them as they develop. It will run expanded local, regional, national and international news.

Plus the site will prominently display calendar items and life-cycle events. Readers will also be able to post their reaction to news and other content, including Mazel Tov postings.

In Obituaries, there will be interactive space for photo- and memory-sharing, funeral and shiva logistics, and links to favorite charities. For B'nai Mitzvot, each child may post a link to his or her web page.

There will be links for mitzvah projects, D'var Torah lectures by rabbis, celebration links, a unified interactive community calendar, and more.

In phase two, the site will introduce social networking tools such as those found on Facebook and You Tube, Powell added. There will be a section for blogging, online education, including podcasts, an interactive space for reader photo-sharing, and a virtual database of local businesses. Phase two will also include features that will be launched in reaction to feedback from the community.

The Journal's ability to effect this paradigm shift giving users an interactive platform for learning, sharing and networking is being made possible by grants from The Goldhirsh Foundation and The Friends of Gerald M. Perlow, MD, the late president of the Board of Overseers of the Journal.

"This is the first step," said an enthusiastic Barbara Schneider, Journal publisher. "My analogy is: the donors paid to build and wire the house, now we have to furnish it. We need to staff it and obtain the equipment to do video- and pod-casting. We have a long way to go."

Schneider joined Powell and Greenberg at a meeting with other area Jewish agency heads to unveil the plans. Buoyed by the reaction they received, they are now expanding their demonstrations to other stakeholders.

"People were excited," Powell said. "Readers will come to our site for the news of the day and then they'll see the news of the agencies and temples. They can click on links to the JCCs [Jewish Community Centers], Jewish Family Service, the Federation, the Lappin Foundation, Cohen Hillel Academy and others."

Powell said it was "thrilling" after so many months of working on the Web site to hear such positive community reaction to the Journal's initiative.

"It was a validation of our plans," Powell said.

The next step is to meet with potential advertisers to talk to them about their sponsorship of the Journal's Web site.

"We will ask some of them to come forward and underwrite the next phase, which includes the hiring of staff who will manage the new Internet site. We also need sponsors to underwrite the new features planned for phase two of the launch," Powell said.

Source: JewishJournal.org

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