Dunes Blog

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I was very impressed with the coverage on NWI.com of the recent flooding in the area. With no truly local TV station able to provide round the clock coverage, The Times stepped in and provided that coverage.

Their site was continually updated all throughout the recent crisis with the latest information. You could tell their writers were putting in overtime. They literally filled the site with content about the flooding, all the while continuing regular news coverage. It became a place to find out about the latest road and school closings. The kind of invaluable resource we need in this area.

One thing I and many others wanted to see was pictures. NWI.com became a central place where people could submit and view photos of the destruction in the area. It was fantastic. I literally went through hundreds of pictures and personal accounts.

NWI.com is truly becoming an online portal for Northwest Indiana. The design of their site is clean and efficient, it’s easy to navigate around and it loads quickly. Kudos goes out the the team managing the The Time web operations, they’re doing a fantastic job. I’ve managed content myself, but not on this scale, so I know the kind of work these guys do.

As someone who works doing SEO and Social Media, their site is doing a fantastic job taking advantage of these new technologies. The site has video, RSS Feeds, user comments (though I don’t recommend reading them, your I.Q. will go down) and ways to share content on other social networking sites.

I was surprised to see them stream the Gubernatorial debate live last night. This was an awesome thing to do since there really isn’t a way to air that stuff locally on TV (though I don’t know if the local PBS aired it, probably not).

NWI is undeserved by the major media networks because we are crammed between South Bend and Chicago and thus get the TV networks in both cities. Because of this, coverage on the Chicago and South Bend Networks about Northwest Indiana is sparse, to say the least. The Times is filling that void by using the internet to create a portal for NWI as well as it’s own de facto media network, as we’ve seen with them streaming live events.

Let’s hope they keep it up. I’d like to see a web based video network dedicated to NWI and maybe radio feeds or podcasts. I would also like to see them embrace blogs more and maybe create a directory/agrigator of local blogs.

Speaking of blogs. I was disappointed with NWI Bloggers during the flooding. This is probably the worst disaster to hit the area in a long time and many local blogs were silent (though a couple did blog). Keeping in mind that these blogs are run by people and they were probably dealing with the affects of the disaster. But Blogging provides a unique way to citizens to share their experiences and pictures. Granted, I didn’t write much about it myself because Valpo was spared the worst of the floods and I pretty much stayed in to avoid the chaos.

If you wrote about the floods, please send me links to your entries. I’d like to aggregate the links onto one page so that people can see what other people had to say about this terrible disaster.

Northwest Indiana is lucky that it has two well developed daily newspapers. We have the Gary Post-Tribune and Northwest Indiana Times. Both are pretty decent papers, but which one is better if you live in Valparaiso?

The Post-Tribune is and always will be a Lake County paper, it has a long history and is based in Gary. This is also it’s weakness. Honestly, I don’t care what much happens in most of Lake County. The Post is Lake County heavy and I can really live without it.

The Northwest Indiana Times has a different history, it’s an amalgamation of several newspapers from over the years, most notably the Valparaiso Vidette Messenger. While the Times is weighted more towards Porter County news, it provides balanced coverage of Lake County issues.

Both newspapers cost essentially the same price wise. The boilerplate Associated Press content is all the same in both papers; which is the majority of their content anyway. The Post does a little better with International News; the Times keeps burying world news in different parts of the paper. Movie reviews are a dime a dozen. I think the Times has better classified ads. Also, on Sundays, the Post always seems to be missing the bulk of the sale papers that come with the Times.

Their websites must also be judged as well. The Post-Tribune’s website is basically an extension of the Chicago Sun Times (its parent company) website and uses their hideous design and layout. Their search engine usually fails to work correctly and it’s difficult to navigate. The Times, however, has a pretty good website. Sure, it’s full of ads and Adobe Flash which clutters things up, but it’s not hard to find what you’re looking for and is easy to read. It’s also updated throughout the day.

As for the NWI Times website, if you don’t want to get very angry and lose faith in your fellow man, I would avoid reading the comments to pretty much any story. Most of the people who comment say the stupidest things and many lack decent grammar and spelling skills. It’s actually sad. Avoid the comments at all costs no matter how much you’re tempted.

The Times is slightly hostile to outside sources using it’s content. I have several Google Alerts set up for the area and I almost never get links for content from the Times. Most of the links are from the Post. Both sites, however, have RSS feeds, which is promising.

Both sites have joined the blogging revolution. Though it seems like it was kicking and screaming because they’re consultants told them to. The Times blogs are more developed and look like they are updated more often. I can’t stand looking at the Post blogs.

So, in the end, which paper is better if you live in Valpo?

Well, I vote for the Northwest Indiana Times. It covers Valpo way more than the Post does and is overall just a better paper.

As always, to each his own.

Which paper do you guys prefer?