Skip to content

Benkelman Post and Hitchcock County Newspapers To Expand Operations this Week

 It’s national newspaper week, and here at the Benkelman Post we are excited to announce that our news services for the community will be expanding this week.
Beginning Friday afternoon our new web site, Scoopmedianews.com will go live.
We have heard for awhile from subscribers that a web site would be appreciated. To be honest, we have hesitated doing the web site, because the news world has been changing about as fast as the internet. We have felt that our biggest responsibility to the communities is to make sure we made prudent decisions that would not affect the stability of the newspapers.
Our web site will be a little different as we get it up and running. Everything that we are working on will not be immediately available this week, but let me explain what the plan is.
The newspaper web site will not be focused solely on Benkelman or Hitchcock County. It will focus on Southwest Nebraska. To further make this a web site for both communities, we will not be utilizing school colors in anyway on the web site. Our logos, etc. were all designed with black and white and red colors.
The web site is designed to be a funnel. We will pick up key facebook feeds from across the area and you will see them at the bottom of the page. There will be a few spots for three advertisers on the web site that will provide ads to link back to the advertiser’s business.  Our regular newspaper advertisers will appreciate the site, because instead of trying to sell them additional advertising their ad being placed in the newspaper, it will also run on the web site.  The newspapers will remain our primary news focus. The newspapers will be able to be read online. There will be a link that you can submit your birth announcements, weddings, obituaries, classifieds and news items right through the web site to us. You will be able to get onto the web site and renew your subscription with anything from Paypal and credit cards to your checking account.
For our sports fans, there will be links on our web site directing you to the colleges we have area kids participating in sports.
Jason takes a lot of pictures, we are still working on it, but coming in the month of October, we will have a link where you can see and order pictures that are taken by the staff.
Broadcast journalism will play a role in the future of the web site. Jason went to college and specifically obtained a degree in this, so we have been setting it up so we can have newscasts or even stream live video of events, board meetings, breaking news. We are still working some things out with this part of the web site, so we are hoping to have this part up and running by the first of November.
Our overall goal is for scoopmedianews.com to be the hub of our local area news, the web site will help you funnel through some of the facebook traffic and compile all kinds of things into one local site. On first look it might look a lot like other web sites, but we believe your are going to find that Scoop Media News will make your life easier.  If you have thoughts or ideas, we are open to ideas.
As a final closing thought, this week is National Newspaper week. I looked over all of the editorials that the press association sent out, and so much of it is focused on negative newspapers are dying mentality. I think when I hear that type of stuff, it is too generalized.  In large cities and communities, newspapers are truly struggling to survive. In smaller communities, we are just maintaining. We bought the papers in October of 2003 and August of 2007, right at the time of social media instant news revolution. Since that time, our circulation has remained stable. We are still attending local events and reporting on city and county government happenings that as tax payers, you need to be aware of. We have the pictures of your children and grandchildren and we have the news from the past that provides good conversation starters and warm memories.
We appreciate your continued support. These communities and all of you mean so very much to us.

Leave a Comment