Now Offers Web Site

The new Mackinac Island Town Crier Web site, as the front page of February’s edition appears on the computer screen

The Mackinac Island Town Crier is on the Internet, with a Web site at www.mack inacislandtowncrier.com or www.mackinacislandnews. com, and readers are invited to take a look and let us know what they think about it.

For now, the site is free, but access to recent news will require payment by our next issue in mid-May. Issues older than four weeks will continue to be free.

The Web edition of the Mackinac Island Town Crier contains all the news, photographs, and advertisements contained in the printed edition. A great search feature will allow readers to find names or subjects from any of the past issues dating to the holiday edition last December, and the site allows readers to buy subscriptions over the Internet using their credit card.

The opening page of the site contains the headlines and leads for the stories on the current issue’s front page. To read the rest of the story, simply click on the story. In many cases, the accompanying photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them, too.

On the left side of the page is a menu of other features, including other news stories in the current issue, obituaries, calendars of events, and our interesting columns.

Clicking on one of the menu items brings up a page similar to the front page, where the headlines and lead sentences of the story are visible, and where the full story can be accessed by clicking on it.

When the paid online subscriptions are implemented next month, the opening screens of each page will still be available to everyone, but the full stories cannot be accessed without the subscription.

Past stories can be searched by subject, or the entire news content for that week can be accessed by clicking on the issue date.

The display advertisements for the current issue can be seen on the right side of the Web pages. They rotate each time you access a new page. If you click on one of the ads, it will get bigger and, in many cases, the Web link to that advertiser’s site will appear.

If you want to see all of the display ads, click on the "Shopping Page" bar in the left-hand menu.

Many newspapers offer free access to their current news and paid access to their archives. The Town Crier will be just the opposite. To access the most recent four issues of the paper, readers will need an annual subscription for $20, or can buy a one-week preview for $5.

The Web site isn’t intended to replace the printed edition, but some subscribers may find that it is a more convenient way to get the news that way, especially when they are on the road. Far-away subscribers, in California, for instance, must now wait three weeks or more for their newspaper to arrive by mail, and they, too, may enjoy the quicker access via the Internet.

More features will be added this spring, including links to related sites and information about our printing services.

Our other publication, The St. Ignace News, is also posted on the Web. It can be seen at www.stignacenews.com or www.saintignacenews.com.

The sites are hosted by OurHometown.com of New York.