Two months today | From the Publisher’s Laptop

By Christopher Spencer
Ozarks Unbound

Today marks our two-month anniversary at Ozarks Unbound. We are still evolving, still developing and still looking for interesting stories to tell, but I continue to be pleased with where are now.

I hope everyone likes the new design that goes live at some point this weekend. It’s a natural evolution and should let us present more stories on the front page. I’ve noticed that some content that is worth hanging on the front page for a few days because of news value gets pushed off with new content.

The new design should help that problem quite a bit.

Please welcome Elise Mitchell of Mitchell Communications Group who is providing this week’s Songbook. Her first song was the classic Eagles track “Hotel California.” I’m sure the other six tunes should be pretty epic as well.

Many thanks also to everyone who helped me put together the last entry from the commercial edition of Songbook. I was able to crowdsource the whole entry and list some good songs.

This week I got a chance to hear state lottery director Ernie Passailaigue speak at the Political Animals Club of Northwest Arkansas. I wrote a story here about it. It’s an interesting and important issue for the state, especially for students.

Feel free to send any suggestions to us at cspencer@ozarksunbound.com

4 Comments

Matt Petty says:

August 13, 2009 at 8:29 AM

You’ve got a great thing started here!

Here are my personal observations…

I find the original commentary very valuable. The two pieces of content that really stand out is the lottery coverage from Political Animals and the light rail coverage.

I, personally, don’t pay much attention to the songbook, but the rest of the your aggregated links are somewhat useful. As a huge geek, it’s nice to reassured that what I’m reading is important to others, too, and the occasional story you aggregate that I haven’t picked up yet is enough to keep me checking my Unbound feed reader a couple of times a day.

Keep up the good work (and PS – maybe solicit a few comments from locals who may have a little bit of expertise on any particular issue).
Christopher Spencer says:

August 13, 2009 at 1:53 PM

Thanks for the great advice, Matt.

I agree that the original reporting is probably the strong suite. It’s also the most satisfying to me as a writer and very challenging from a multi-media perspective. Those are tools that I think all journalist are gonna have to learn fluency with pretty soon.

I love the fact that other people contribute to Songbook. I’m looking forward to having lots of different people contribute over time. I’d say, unless you know the person, it’s probably pretty hit or miss as to whether your tastes musically are gonna synch.

I’m glad to get a little confirmation as well about Clipped Fresh. I think it’s get stronger the more people who contribute to it. If you’re interested in contributing to it, Matt, I can certainly set you up as a contributer. My hope is that someday conversations will break up on the comments and discussion can occur there.

I really appreciate you taking the time to do a little analysis and provide some feedback, Matt.
Bruce C says:

August 16, 2009 at 11:15 AM

*Love* the new look. A lot. Definitely an improvement and more evidence that you’re growing. Good on ya. Disagree with Matt’s view on the songbook, but I am a music lover so I’m partial to any discussion on the topic. As a believer in The Long Tail theory, stick to what your gut tells you. The audience will find you.
Christopher Spencer says:

August 16, 2009 at 10:22 PM

Thanks for the encouragement, Bruce. I’m pleased that it gives me more real estate to put different stories on the front page.

I think you’re right about doing what you enjoy, and my tastes have increasingly been in the supercool methods I can use to gather news and put it online.