The New Look of Menifee 24/7

If you're reading this from a laptop or desktop, congratulations, you're seeing our new website design.

The new look, which is only viewable on desktops and laptops, went live this morning after spending several months evaluating new design ideas and ironing out all the bugs. Here are the advantages to the new design...

• Loads faster - being only two columns, instead of the previous three, it loads faster. We also upgraded the ad banners by using asynchronous coding, which means the rest of the website can load while the ads are still loading. Before, the ads had to completely load before the rest of the website could finish.


• Threaded commenting - you can now comment on other peoples comments. You'll see a little "Reply" link below each comment, formatting and placing your comment directly below someone else's. No longer must you specify who you're talking to.


• Wider content column - the articles are physically wider, allowing for larger images. Before the articles maxed out at 500 pixels width, we now have up to 615 pixels of width.


• Popular posts - there's now a feature below the ad banners for "Popular Posts", which shows you to top five most read articles over the past 30 days.


• New ad units - we now offer a horizontal ad next to our logo. We're also featuring flyer ads, where we take your flyer and display it on the side of the page. We can also display coupons on the side of the page too. Contact us about advertising.

It seems every 18 to 24 months we go through a redesign. That's about what all websites have to do just to stay up with the latest trends and technology in online publishing.

But it seems the demographic is changing over to mobile.

Nearly 1/3 of our readers (32.54% over the last 30 days) are accessing our content from a mobile device. It was only a few months ago that figure was at 25%. It's growing so quickly, I wouldn't be surprised if it reached 50% by the end of this year.

Mobile users won't see this new redesign. What they'll see instead is a more simplified version of Menifee 24/7 designed for easier reading in small dimensions. Redesigning our mobile platform is perhaps our next step.

And for those of you reading us from our e-mail subscription, you've noticed a new redesign as well.

BTW, our rise in mobile readers is not just a global thing, it's also a reflection on Menifee as a community. It shows that residents here are quickly settling into the mobile revolution.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, are all investing heavily into their mobile platforms and developing new technology to track consumers using cellphone GPS. The idea is that they will know precisely where you are and be able to deliver you coupons for nearby establishments.

I'm not sure yet that's where we're going to go with Menifee 24/7. Our focus has been to bring you the latest news and announcements, and I'd rather stay with that.

But the publishing business goes hand-in-hand with the advertising business, we can't stop being marketers too.

Meanwhile, since we still have another 2/3 of our readers on laptops and desktops, it's an 800-pound gorilla we can't ignore. But I can't help wondering if this new redesign will be the last for Menifee 24/7. I wonder from this point forward all of our efforts will be focused on mobile publishing. It's almost like that gorilla is quickly turning into a dinosaur.