Revamped Star will debut in November

Called the Orléans Star, the newspaper will be delivered each weekend to more than 46,000 homes in Orléans, Blackburn Hamlet, Beacon Hill, Rothwell Heights and communities in Cumberland.

The newspaper will debut on Nov. 6.

“For the past 14 years, we’ve published two newspapers a week, The Star and Weekly Journal,” says publisher Michael Curran. “There were reasons for this, but we don’t think those reasons are valid today.”

Curran says the merged newspaper will offer readers almost double the amount of local news, sports, arts, features and columns in a single product that can be enjoyed each weekend.

“We strongly believe one newspaper serving residents east of Blair Road, complemented by an award-winning website, is the right decision for readers and the hundreds of businesses that support the Orléans Star,” he says.

Editor-in-chief Patricia Lonergan says the change will allow the news team to focus more resources on the Orléans Star website.

“A single paper will allow us to update the website more frequently,” she adds. “Our readers are very web-savvy. They want community news on demand, when it’s convenient for them. The combination of daily updates (sent via e-mail to subscribers) and a much larger weekly newspaper is much more compelling.”

The Orléans Star website, currently located at EastOttawa.ca, will also be relaunched in the next few months. The URL will change to OrleansStar.ca.

Curran says the relaunched website will allow readers to directly publish information online, including opinion pieces, news and event listings.

“Our website was recognized as best in Canada in 2007. It’s visited by more than 20,000 people each month and has 2,000 registered members,” he says. “It’s been a huge success. But we have a much larger vision.”

For example, says Curran, the Orléans Star already has a Smart Edition, which is a digital reproduction of the printed newspaper. The Smart Edition includes features such as audio, picture galleries, mobile edition, language translation, live hypertext links in articles and advertising, RSS feeds and archived editions dating back several months.