As John Weicker finishes his final two months of school, he’s counting down the days with a small ticker in his office.On Thursday, the counter read 44 days, plus a few hours, minutes and seconds.The Journal Gazette has redesigned its mobile site, jgmobile.net, making it easier for smartphone and tablet users to find the latest news, sports and features.
With the Apple iPhone 5 out and Microsoft Windows 8 due next month, “it seemed to be the right time” for the upgrade, Systems Editor Paul Wagner said.
Users of jgmobile.net can view almost all of the local news, sports, business and feature stories published in the newspaper’s print edition, plus additional material available only on its website, journalgazette.net.
Mobile device users will find four prominent option menus at the top of the screen: “Sections,” “Blogs,” “Photos” and “Video.”
“Sections” leads to sports, features, opinion and local news pages, among others. Clicking “Blogs” results in a list of popular news, sports and features blogs that are updated regularly. “Photo” and “Video” provide links to the best in local photojournalism.
The redesign allows video to more easily conform to screen size for either smartphone or tablet. Also new is a weather radar page showing conditions for the Fort Wayne region.
About 20 percent of the pages on the newspaper’s website are viewed by smartphones or tablets, said Tom Pellegrene, manager of news technologies for the newspaper. And that number is expected to grow, he added.
The Journal Gazette first launched jgmobile.net in January 2009. The redesign has been in unannounced “soft release” for about a week and has received positive responses on The Journal Gazette’s Twitter account, Wagner and Pellegrene said.
While online readers can now find The Journal Gazette at journalgazette.net, and at the revamped jgmobile.net, if technology presents another format for delivering the news, the newspaper will adapt to it.
“We will continue to follow the readers to wherever they happen to be,” Pellegrene said.
