The Las Vegas Sun, has, in my opinion, one of the best online presences of any newspaper in the U.S. The information is updated fairly frequently (while reading my article it was updated twice) and the time in minutes since the last update is posted on the website’s header. The Sun offers a wide variety of ways for readers to become involved with the paper while being able to tie these features in with stories.
For example, there is a story about how Tea Party candidate Joe Heck has recently lost support from his party. There is a large graphic showing Heck at the top of the page and a photo gallery shortly below that. Running next to the article are links to archived stories the Sun has published about Heck, something that I think most readers would find very useful. At the end of the article is the ability to comment on the website and even share the information through Twitter, Facebook or email.
One of the most interesting and innovative things about the Las Vegas Sun’s website is the feature “Home News.” This feature allows the user to build a custom newspaper to fit their needs. After entering a zip code, the Sun website creates relative links and features such as home for sale in that zip code, crime rates, high school sports, entertainment news and prices … essentially everything that users want to know, but would have to go to other sites to access.
All of these features make the Las Vegas Sun stand out and have helped their website stay relevant to users.
