This week the Church Public Affairs Department launched the beta version of Newsroom.lds.org, the Church's website for news media, opinion leaders and the public. This is the fourth iteration of the site and a significant step forward, while it builds on the success of the previous three sites. The first version was launched in 2000 (a previous blog post has a little history).
We invite you to visit the new site and give us feedback. We emphasize that this is a beta launch and there is still some work to do on the site. Additional content will be added, and you may encounter a few bugs that will be fixed soon.
- The design is significantly changed from the previous site and has a much stronger news feel to it.
- The search engine and navigation are improved to make it easier for news media to find content on the site.
- A new multimedia section and search engine will make it easier to find photos, video and audio that are available for use by news media, bloggers and others.
- Much more content has been brought to the front page, including the Newsroom blog and the World Report video program.
- The Newsroom blog design is also changed, and it is incorporated into the site.
- A topic index has been added to the site to aggregate information by topic. The number of topics on this page will grow extensively over the life of the site.
While we'll have more to say about the site when it is officially launched, here are a couple of things you'll notice right away that are different:
Beyond those changes, significant technical enhancements have been made that will allow us to provide information to the news media, bloggers and the public much faster and more comprehensively.
We're anxious to hear your feedback. You can share your thoughts through the new site's feedback system or e-mail them directly to mediahelp@ldschurch.org.