We hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays, and we also want to wish you a Happy New Year! We also want to share some good news: Thanks to your support, Oak Ridge Today continues to grow.
We checked our Google Analytics website statistics for 2014, and here’s what they show:
If you support Oak Ridge Today, please consider becoming a voluntary subscriber. You don’t have to subscribe to read our stories, but your contribution will help us grow and improve our coverage.
We currently offer three subscription levels: $5, $10, or $25 per month. We accept payments through PayPal. You can also visit our subscription page for information on other options, including check payments.
Thank you for your support.
Note: We have heard from readers who want more information on subscriptions to Oak Ridge Today or who want reminders that they are available, so we plan to post a subscription reminder periodically throughout the year. Please let us know if you have any questions. For more information, you may send an e-mail to Co-Owner/Co-Publisher John Huotari at [email protected], or you may call him at (865) 951-9692.
Oak Ridge Today experienced some technical difficulties while performing routine maintenance this weekend.
During this period, story headlines and meta data (author, publication date, and number of comments) did not display on posts and on the home page. All other content continued to display.
We were able to resolve the issue, and headlines and meta data have been restored.
We apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.
Jutta Bangs, director of the local Tennessee Small Business Development Center, presents a 2013 Rising Star Award to John Huotari, co-owner and co-publisher of Oak Ridge Today.
The Tennessee Small Business Development Center at Roane State Community College has awarded the 2013 Rising Star Award to Dawn and John Huotari of Oak Ridge Today.
Each year, the Rising Star Award is given by the TSBDC network to a small business client in each of the regions served. The awards recognize the perseverance and successes of the businesses, a press release said.
Local TSBDC Director Jutta Bangs helped Dawn and John Huotari with the start-up and marketing of their online news outlet.
“We would like to thank the TSBDC and Jutta for their help and guidance in getting Oak Ridge Today started,†said John Huotari, co-owner and co-publisher of the local news website. “Their assistance was invaluable, particularly in the start-up phase. Jutta has continued to provide important advice on issues ranging from marketing to website content to hiring employees.†[Read more…]
Oak Ridge Today has added a Pets section on our home page, and we are working with the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter to feature adoptable pets through a Pet of the Day feature. We posted the first featured pet today (Sunday).
Thank you to the Animal Shelter and its volunteers for suggesting this feature.
We have also periodically received requests to add a section on Oak Ridge Today for lost and found pets. We’re working on that feature with the Animal Shelter and will let you know when it’s ready.
Note: This story was updated at 7 p.m.
Oak Ridge Today will be moving to a new server on Saturday afternoon, and we will temporarily be unable to update our website.
The migration is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. today. We’ll let you know when it is complete. (Update: The server migration has been completed. Please let us know if you notice any issues.)
The migration should not affect your ability to read Oak Ridge Today. [Read more…]
During the past few months, we’ve tried to be fairly consistent about moderating reader comments that do not follow our first posting guideline: Use your real name, including last name.
But we may not have been quite as consistent in moderating some of the other guidelines, including those that ask readers who comment to stick to the issues and not make their comments personal.
And during the past few months, readers have let us know they want us to keep the comment section civil, and not allow personal attacks or off-topic posts.
So, we pledge to work harder to ensure that those who comment follow the other guidelines as well. In general, this will probably mean that we simply remove comments that we don’t think follow the other guidelines (be civil, stick to the issues, etc.). In some cases, we may send a short e-mail explaining why the comment was removed. [Read more…]
You’ve probably noticed during the past week that Oak Ridge Today has updated its website design and layout.
Among the changes are new and larger fonts, larger images in the slider at the top of the home page, and a new footer.
We’ve also been able to add more two-column areas in the main content area on the home page and have improved our separation between sections.
The new design uses HTML 5 markup, and it is mobile-responsive, which means you can continue to view Oak Ridge Today on your smart phone or tablet. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge Today has added a poll to the home page. We plan to add it to article pages, below the comment section, as soon as we can.
The first poll asks whether tax increment financing, or TIF, should be used to help redevelop the Oak Ridge Mall. We posted that poll late Sunday night/early Monday morning, before the Anderson County Commission approved the TIF in a 15-0 vote.
See the poll at the bottom left of the home page. We will try to add new poll questions as often as we can.
Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.
Oak Ridge Today has added a News section on the front page. It’s below the Top Stories section.
This new section gives us extra flexibility to post more stories about community news, upcoming events, meeting announcements, and other general interest news. We hope this will help you keep up with all the latest local news.
Please let us know if you have any questions or comments, and thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.
Our dog Mija at Melton Lake Park, one of her favorite places to visit, in the fall of 2011.
Some of you might have noticed that we had fewer posts than usual these past few days.
That’s because we lost our older dog, Mija, this past weekend. Also, it was Father’s Day, and we decided to take off most of the weekend.
Mija’s death—she was 16—came three weeks after we unexpectedly lost one of our cats, Lily. She was 12 and a wedding present for us.
Oak Ridge Today should be mostly back to normal today. We dedicate today’s news to Mija and Lily.
