Sentinel's fancy new website welcomes you (REFRESH YOUR BROWSER AH-LOT!)

What's been going on since the March Street Edition said, "I'm hitting the road!"

The quest for sustainable service model

Welcome to the Sentinel’s new website.
Over the last 6 months we’ve been working hard on launching this new design and platform. All those involved are delighted with how well it’s turned out. Forage around. I hope you find it easier to use and more pleasing to the eye than ever. News and information should flow better, and as always you can post your own news and events by hitting the big blue speech bubble. The user login, though, is now discretely tucked up in the upper right hand corner of the site. Community users, should know that their post will still publish instantly. But it might take a few hours or a day for editors to review the content before a posting them the home page. Go to the RECENT POST page (button on the main navigation bar) for an unfiltered view of all public access and news service postings. Last but not least, if you have problems with site features, remember to refresh your web browser. Refreshing your browser will help your computer to 'learn' how to see the new website design and functions.  It sounds strange, but...yes..it's technical, trust me.

I am excited that the Oregon News Incubator and the Sentinel are continuing on with their office and content collaboration.

Through this arrangement, experienced writers and media producers can get 24-hour access to the Sentinel’s newsroom, either through direct rent payment — starting at $40 a month — or through taking assignments for the Sentinel’s online news service. The office share provides writers and media producers the resources of a newsroom with the camaraderie, casual peer review and free flow exchange of ideas that can only occur in a real space. For the Sentinel this is an opportunity to continue to deliver news service to one of Portland’s most under-served communities. While this publication continues to look for sustainable models, this partnership is vitally important to the publication’s mission to deliver quality news to a part of town that usually gets ignored.

What happens when the paper of record dies? It's a terrible question to ponder.  But we at The Sentinel have thought long and hard about what might occur if after nine years we discontinue service.  One of the answers is that the records and facts, stories and history we have documented will be lost.  The things that people remember will slowly distort and fade. Without accessible records of local history, will a community be condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past? Will a neighbors too easily forget their hard-fought triumphs and their past heroes and heroines?  How can a community move forward and succeed today without a firm memory of the trials and errors of yesterday?

Well, we've been offline for nearly 24 hours. Did the news totally stink without us? Well, it may not seem like it at your end, but we've just upgraded our site big time. Yes, we've brought a whole new level of advanced technology to the frontiers of neighborhood news coverage with an upgrade to Drupal 6! We know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, "Sentinel, you don't look any different. In fact, I think you may have put on a few unsightly pounds since we last met."

No, no, that's just water weight...and YES, the site has greatly improved. You'll notice some of these improvements when you go to post your own community news and events (which should be easier now). Other improvements will be coming online over the next few days.  The new Sentinel site will, when it's complete, be shinier, healthier, more manageable...OK...that's just what was written on the side of this bottle of shampoo...but it'll be cool, you'll see. Until then, please be patient.

~ Cornelius Swart
Hey pro and citizen journalist, bloggers and media activists come down to the offices of the Oregonian tomorrow for a free all day workshop. It's not too late, but you have to sign up today!

Digital Journalism Camp is all about improving your reporting, your blog and your business.

Hear from professionals in the field about story craft, business models, licensing and legal issues in a perfectly packed primer on new media reporting.
 

PUBLISHER'S BLOG ~ Cornelius Swart

While we're on the subject of the state of newspapers, and where this is all headed, here is a pitch from The Sentinel Editorial Board, myself and blogger Ryan Fish:

Local arts and culture blogger Ryan Fish has generously offered to match a single $50 donation to The Sentinel's online editor fund in a unique experiment to see if “crowd funding” methods can help support online news services and blogs.
 
News services around the country are scrambling to find new revenue sources and business models. The Sentinel has been investigating a nonprofit project it calls Portland Media Lab. A quick visit to the PML home page will reveal a long list of links to articles about issues shaping the news industry.

 You must sign up for a user account in order to post content.

PAYING FOR FREE NEWS?

The Sentinel provides a hyper-local news service that utilizes an innovative 'freelance news room'. You can support local news by subscribing to the Sentinel: $20 a year, check made payable to The Sentinel, PO Box 3316, PDX, OR 97217 or call 503-287-3880, info@portlandsentinel.com

The Sentinel News Forum is an open publishing service where user content is posted side by side with content generated by the Sentinel News Service. Sentinel generated content is labeled Sentinel News Service. The views, opinions and claims made by users do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sentinel. The Sentinel does not substantiate statements of fact made in user content. The site is policed by the Sentinel News Service and community volunteers.

If you needed proof of that statement look no further than this edition of The Sentinel. This, our annual humor edition, will leave you scratching your head, smirking dismissively and saying to yourself “uh … yeah” with our hit-or-miss attempts at satire, zany madcap comedy and potty-mouth jokes.

While this edition may leave you feeling like we’ve bruised your funny bone (if we can find it at all), just remember that we may be groping in the dark for a cheap laugh but we actually do a pretty good job of serious journalism.

Video by David Hunter

St Johns Bizarre 2009, MAY 9th PARADE DAY,

9am Downtown St Johns- Street fair begins after the parade at 10am.

ST. JOHNS BIZARRE: 10am-8pm, Street Closure 10am-8pm

Market, Beer Garden, Street Fair and more.

The festival known as the St. Johns Bizarre will begin at 10am on Parade Day, May 9.  

Now in its third year the Bizarre offers a “day before Mother’s Day market” with over 50 vendors, two music stages and a beer garden. The event will officially become a street fair this year.  North Lombard Street, between North Richmond and North Baltimore avenues will be closed between 2pm and 8pm.  The Beer Garden 

(Ye Old Der Bier Garten) will have a humorous feature this year, consisting something called “death by bratwurst.” Don’t ask. You don’t want to know.

UNIVERSITY PARK NEIGHBORHOOD Association

Watch out it makes your fingers dirty..the ink..not the news.The Sentinel drops stacks of papers off in over 160 locations throughout the district. Download the attached PDF file for a complete list of drop sites and how many papers you can find at each one.

The Sentinel is a small-market multi-media news service that covers North, Northeast and Far Northwest Portland OR. The print edition distributes 27,000 copies the first Wednesday of every month ceased in March of 2010. The online news service and bulletin board www.portlandsentinel.com provides new information daily and has approximately 20,000 unique visitors a month.

The Sentinel is owned by SydHonda Media LLC, a company that specializes in content, news and information services.

Cover, Mailing and Stacking AreasThe Sentinel is an monthly newspaper that circulates over 26,000 papers in greater North, Inner Northeast and Far Northwest Portland.