Time-Standard Managing Editor Rich Somerville has announced that reporter and columnist James Faulk has been assigned to the new position of Web Editor. Rich’s column is pretty short on specifics leading some local blogsters and blog commenters to speculate what the heck may be in store for the site. Everybody hates the pop-ups (me included but I use a great Firefox plug-in so I don’t see them) and the design is a bit chaotic. But what exactly will James be doing to improve the site?

Well, as James Faulk comments on Fred’s Blog:

I’ll basically be managing the production of content for the Web — that is, more video, more audio, more Web-centric features. My job is to push everyone within the newsroom to put the Internet at the top of their list. Also, we’ll have Web updates posted throughout the day, so you should be able to find fresh headlines every few hours. The Bully Pulpit, for those interested, will become a blog.

So, he will be pushing more content to the web and trying to keep it current. Nothing in the way of technical improvements. That’s a shame.

One feature I’ve been bugging several local publications about is implementing RSS feeds. Especially if new stories are going to be pushed to the web throughout the day, news feeds would be much better than having to check the web site randomly. I did visit the T-S site and lo and behold they do have a feed. However, it’s a list of “Most Viewed” from the last 12 hours. Most viewed what? Stories on the web I assume. But that’s tautological. If you put only the most viewed in to your only feed, won’t those who use the feed add to the votes for the most viewed stories already in the “Most Viewed” list? Especially since the feed only provides the first few lines of each stories, so you have to click through to the site to read the full story. That’s not a bad strategy in itself, since for a commercial operation you want to have people go to the site itself so they can be subjected to the ads. Page views and click throughs are all important metrics.

But if you’re posting fresh content throughout the day, a feed that offers the most current sotries would of greatest interest to news junkies.

All in all though, the Times-Standard is working hard to find a place in this fast evolving networked world, experimenting with new modes and new content types. On the other hand the Eureka Reporter hasn’t changed it’s web site one iota since it went online several years ago. They still can’t even get their server set up right so that you don’t have to type www.eurekareporter.com instead of just eurekareporter.com. If you go to the latter, it STILL says:

“Under Construction

The site you were trying to reach does not currently have a default page. It may be in the process of being upgraded.”

What’s that about?