I’ve been hearing good things about John Solomon ever since he took over as editor of the Washington Times in January. Soon we’ll begin to see the fruits of his labor with a new website and redesigned print edition. The paper has posted a slideshow outlining the changes to the website and print edition.
For a more detailed explanation, check out the video below featuring Washington Times President Tom McDevitt and Solomon explaining some of the biggest changes readers will see. My favorite has to be the new homepage feature called the “Cube,” which is something I’d actually like to copy for Heritage.org. The Sunday edition of the paper is also a dramatic improvement.
Here’s a complete list of changes, courtesy of Fishbowl DC.
News coverage, analysis and opinion from the nation’s capital and throughout the world that are not available elsewhere
Multimedia presentations of the news through print, video and audio
90 minutes of fresh new video every day
Original video and audio programming produced daily in The Washington Times broadcast studio
A website innovation, called the ‘Cube,’ presents a new way to navigate the news vertically by themes, in addition to traditional horizontal navigation by topics such as national, world, metro, entertainment.
Vertical navigation with the Cube enables readers to dive deeper into stories
400,000 horizontal entry points, or ‘news themes,’ into the web site
Inside the Story and Inside the Beltway, new one-hour internet radio programs broadcast on wsRadio and also at washingtontimes.com
Mobile platform distribution to a news consumer’s computer, video player
Social networking opportunity for readers to congregate around the news and interact with one another
Communities built around topics and hosted by ‘mayors’ who moderate the debate each day, with related sub-communities called neighborhoods
The ability to ‘Ask a Question’ and receive answers from our extensive archive of news and information as well as from all others participating in the washingtontimes.com interactive experience
Hat Tip: Fishbowl DC, Ben Domenech
My good friend Bill Beutler gave me an ingenious idea tonight as I was watching the Detroit Red Wings advance to the Stanley Cup finals over the Dallas Stars. With the computer on my lap and Twitterrific spitting out updates, I began typing a note on Twitter about my hopes that the NHL’s Western Conference finals would go to a seventh game. Then it occurred to me to search for Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars on Twitter. Sure enough, @detroitredwings and @dallasstars were both on Twitter.
But when I searched for my favorite sports teams, the Penguins, Pirates, Panthers and Steelers, I found nothing. Given the high intensity of Pittsburgh sports fans, it left me somewhat surprised. But I also saw an opportunity to fill the void.
You see, just yesterday Bill wrote about a couple of popular blogs, Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit and Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, that he was following via Twitter. Like Bill, I too find that my online-reading habits have changed over the past few years. I’m now more inclined to follow people’s work on Twitter than I am from their blog directly.
That’s one of the reasons I created @Heritage on Twitter for those who wanted to follow the many products of The Heritage Foundation — from our research papers and blog posts to video clips and event notifications. It’s also why I created @UticaNY. Just a few years ago, I would read the Observer-Dispatch, WKTV and local blogs every day. Now, I just don’t have the time. Twitter offers a great solution to give me the news in pieces as it’s happening.
The same goes for my favorite Pittsburgh teams. Rarely do I visit the sports pages of Post-Gazette or Tribune-Review, but I haven’t lost interest. In fact, I’m more excited about the Penguins now than at any time since the championship seasons of 1991 and 1992. Again, Twitter offers a solution.
Starting tonight I’m using Twitterfeed to pull in news stories from each team’s website as well as headlines from Yahoo! Sports and the Post-Gazette. For the Panthers, I’ve even tapped in to Rivals.com feed for college football and basketball news. If you’re a Pittsburgh sports fan, I hope you’ll enjoy a new way to follow your team.
Pittsburgh Penguins (@Pittsburgh_Pens)

Pittsburgh Pirates (@LetsGoBucs)

Pittsburgh Steelers (@Stillers)

Pittsburgh Panthers (@PittPanthers)

Once again, thanks to Bill for idea. I hope these turn into more than just automatic updates. I’d love to offer the same kind of personalized updates as the people behind @detroitredwings and @dallasstars.