Convergence journalism by the Plano Star Courier Newspaper

So during my senior year of high school, I did an internship at a community paper that I had never heard of before called the Plano Star Courier. My internship advisor gave me this particular location when I told her that I wanted something in journalism because she said that students that she had put there had gotten a lot of things published, and she was right- the Plano Star was not the type of establishment that could really justify the kind of ego that would keep the interns down and doing the police blotter every day. To get things straight, I love the Courier like M. Night Shyamalan loves his first crappy video that he made with toy dinosaurs when he was in the sixth grade or whatever- my very beginnings, which were nonetheless crucial to my development as a writer, and were also kind of adorable. It wasn't as fast paced as a lot of more important papers were, but it was fulfilling work, and the editor in chief was a nice man who spoke with me personally on any sort of questions that I might have and gave me good stories. And it was helpful to them too, because it meant that they got more stories written without having to pay anyone. Because like all newspapers nationwide, they were- and are- experiencing steady reader losses. They did, however, try and jazz the joint up with a primitive website.

It's really not much. They have some of the same ads that they had on there when I was working there all those months ago. The first section you see is labeled 'news update', so that may be sort of an attempt at a news flash section that is easily accessible. The Plano Star has always had a small magazine that was published beside the newspaper, so they have already branched out in that direction. When I worked there, the vast majority of the office space was for people in advertising- how they made their money. The website is sort of evidence of that, with two rows of ads pushed together on the right side of the screen all the way from top to bottom. It's not a very pretty layout, but it's not confusing at all as to how to find the story that you are looking for. They have a few photo albums of  football games and the like, but I wonder if they have been updated recently. The Plano Star has not of yet branched out into the area of broadcast or even videotaping any breaking news to put onto the site. At least that's what I think until I scroll down to the very bottom of the page and find the not very prominently placed health story video. There are also polls, a news poll and a sports poll. That's an interesting feature for them to have on their site. While I look at this, something so naive and familiar, I feel a sense of pride in seeing that they have this much put together. I saw the very insides of this publication, and I had thought that I knew what it was capable of. They surpassed my expectations, at least. Still, the layout needs some work, even a better color scheme would be a valid endeavor to make the site more visually appealing. Still, they are utilizing convergence journalism to reach their audience from several angles, and for that, I give them credit.