THE Guyana Chronicle’s new and improved website was yesterday launched to “dynamically improve the delivery of news to the readers, and making it more interactive” as well.

Acting President Samuel Hinds launched the website: www.guyanachronicleonline.com, at the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL) Management Information System (MIS) office at Lama Avenue, Bel Air Park, Georgetown.

The consultant, Mr. Girendra Persaud of GX Media, explaining the features, said the original website www. guyanachronicle.com, is pretty much old, and currently called a static website.

He explained it is used only for production today and then put into the archive, but “it is not dynamically stored” so as to offer easy retrieval and such.

However, he said with the new dynamic website, archiving and supporting research is looked at, and a framework was made to store the information in different categories to enable persons to easily search a particular subject, and be able to pull the information which had been stored over a period of time.

The specialist said they have a way to garner revenue from the website explaining that there are separate pages for all the categories of news, and on the front page, there are categories of advertisements that people can pay extra for. Referring to it as ‘smart ads’, he said advertisers can attach an advertisement to a particular story.

“So people who might be in sports or sports items might want to be on the sports page,” the consultant reiterated, concluding, “the website is a way for us to dynamically deliver our news and at the same time not shooting ourselves in the foot”.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Guyana Chronicle, Mr. Keith Burrowes, addressing the staff of the company and special invitees, said the website has been a work in progress for about a year, and the newspaper is looking at making the website user friendly.

He noted that it is estimated that the newspaper’s website gets almost 1.5 million hits annually but there have been complaints in terms of archiving information.

He stressed that it is also important to ensure that the entity can increase its revenue significantly, and to this end, GNNL will be deliberately marketing it in the metropolitan areas of Canada and the United States with the hope of attracting the business people out there to advertise with them, to which there are already positive response.

He said the other aspect of the website is for it to be interactive and with a programme for young people.

“We have gone a very good way in building this where young persons would go on the system, and they could compete with each other in terms of answering questions, and we will find a way of compensating winners.”

He promised that this youth initiative to be introduced is going to be revolutionary, and the Guyana Chronicle would be providing additional information as this programme rolls out.

He said the company will be more proactive in terms of using the website, and if there is a breaking story, it can be placed on the website before publication the following day.

Mr. Burrowes also took the opportunity to thank all those involved in the process of developing the new website.

The Acting President, in brief remarks, said, “I am pleased to be with you on this occasion to launch your new website”.

Mr. Hinds observed that mankind is steadily investigating, exploring and experimenting, and “things are always changing and advancing”.

“It is important that we keep up with the changes, particularly the younger people,” he insisted, encouraging them to keep apace with the advances of technology and science.

“Certainly the areas of computers and the development of the internet and web pages and so on have greatly increased the possibilities for presenting information and receiving information and so on,” he highlighted, and he underscored the importance of being computer literate.

“This area is moving rapidly,” the Acting President reiterated and observed, too, that more and more newspapers have been talking about ways to garner income directly from people reading the newspapers.

He alluded to the updating of the webpage which is easily done noting, “A newspaper has to be set and printed but a webpage or a newspaper online could be updated every time the story is finished.”

“Maybe, you may face the question sometime as to how to have an electronic newspaper account going into the future,” he said.

“I am particularly pleased that a state owned enterprise is taking this step…this is a good step for the Chronicle to be right out there in front with all of the competitors,” he expressed.

He went on, “There is nothing absolutely that says that a state owned enterprise can’t do as well and even better than a privately owned enterprise.”

He said he is glad to see that the Guyana Chronicle is taking this step to keep abreast of, and actually, be leading some of the other newspapers in Guyana, and wished the company success in this endeavour.

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