Style's Long Overdue Electronic Upgrade

Last week, during Style Weekly's open house -- introducing their advertisers and hangers-on to their fancy downtown space -- I got a glimpse of the long-awaited revamp of their website, which is apparently 90% done and counting. I mention that (and tempt the newsprint gods with a screen capture, above) only after David Saunders at Madison & Main did a little prognosticating and saw into the future:

One would think Style would be hip enough to embrace what other big city alternative weeklies have done, namely re-launch their brands and get extremely web 2.0, but the website is pretty bad, built on a dated platform and has a design straight out of 1999.

Saunders mentions this in passing, as part of his obituary for Richmond's oldest weekly. While he has his facts straight -- Style is up for sale; their current website stinks; the page count is down -- but I think his predictions miss the mark. There's plenty of room for Style to make a bigger mark on the Richmond region (and launch their new website, while they're at it), but I don't think they're giving up the ghost just yet.

Comments

[Jason Roop]

Thanks for the props, John. One correction: Dave has few of his facts straight. I'm not criticizing him for having an opinion, but those opinions should be informed. His are not, and I spoke with him about those today. (I appreciated his listening and open attitude.) Unfortunately he has yet to alter his post, which is full of misinformation, incorrect assumptions and faulty logic. I'll be happy to share some of the correct information with you.

After the hit piece on Robert Grey, and then Pantele I have to say SW is becoming a disappointment. There begining to show a Pro-Dwight Jones bias. I have yet to see a piece on him and his shady dealing throughout the years. How about open journalism that vets every candidate. I don't want to hear any excuse about how the back page does not represent the views of SW. Then how do you pick what goes on that page? I can write a Real, Truthful article on Grey for you to print on the backpage.

[Jason Roop]

We've run two Back Page (opinion) pieces on two mayoral candidates. Give us a little time. We'll be reporting and analyzing the race for the next several months, and will continue to discuss all the choices. Please feel free to write us about any facts you'd like to set straight in the Grey opinion piece. We publish letters to the editor every week: [email protected].

[Jason Roop]

We've run two Back Page (opinion) pieces on two mayoral candidates. Give us a little time. We'll be reporting and analyzing the race for the next several months, and will continue to discuss all the choices. Please feel free to write us about any facts you'd like to set straight in the Grey opinion piece. We publish letters to the editor every week: [email protected].

[Don]

I look forward to this person's forthcoming submission to STYLE. A word to the wise, however: You do need to reveal your name when you submit those things.