Breeze Newspapers has added new features, and lots more information, to its tourism Web site, flguide.com
Flguide.com provides information on the various communities throughout Southwest Florida and supplements Breeze Newspapers' various on-line news sites for Cape Coral, Sanibel and Captiva, Fort Myers Beach, Boca Grande, Pine Island, Lehigh Acres and North Fort Myers. Flguide.com also is the on-line source for Breeze Newspapers' various tourism and newcomer's guides, giving readers the ability to access information on everything from local parks and beaches to fishing spots and marinas.
"The Breeze Newspapers. mission is to be the primary provider of local information," said Breeze Newspapers Publisher Jack Glarrow. "Tourism is one very important segment of our local economy. Flguide.com provides a summary of information to people around the world who plan on visiting our home. It's a perfect fit for our company and for our market."
Among the news site features is the addition of "boards," which allow visitors and locals to share information on things to do and places to go in Lee and Charlotte county, and a major events calendar.
"Boards allow visitors to flguide.com a chance to share information with one another," Glarrow said. "It gives another dimension to the site. Boards provide opinions from people like you who visited here and want to share their experience with others."
The Breeze's mission is to be the primary provider of local information, Glarrow added.
Fact Box
Whole new look for online tourism guide
By JACK GLARROW
Readers of flguide.com will notice significant improvements in the Web site, which has grown to be the definitive online source for tourism-related news about Southwest Florida.
With the change comes a whole new look. Behind the modern appearance of the site, readers will find a score of enhanced feature that include:
- A Calendar. Look for us for a calendar that should help you better plan your vacation and enjoy your visit to Southwest Florida. If you are a local reader, and have a major event you want to submit to the calendar, you can do so directly from Flguide.com If it's a community event, a club notice or a meeting, be sure to visit one of our newspaper sites and post to any one of our community calendars. (Look under Area News for the community you want to reach.)
- User comments. Readers are invited to post comments to our "boards." Introductory topics include Favorite Places, Activities & More and Food Under the Sun. Feel free to share your experiences with readers worldwide on one of these topics, or create your own.
More information in general. The new site allows us to post more information. We can post more photos with each story and we can provide the reader links to more information.
- Registration. Our new site allows readers to open their own account. Registration is important because it allows you to post comments on stories, blogs and polls. It also allows you to post photos to our popular CU photo-sharing site - and you will want to share photos as you visit our picturesque waterways, byways and attractions.
The site provides readers a view of thousands of photos of the area and is already popular with readers.
- Blogs. Look for information on where the locals go and info on some of Southwest Florida's Hidden Treasures.
- Read Southwest Florida news when and where you want. Flguide.com links to all of our newspapers throughout Southwest Florida. Pull down the drop-down menu under "area news" and you'll find the latest information about Cape Coral, Sanibel and Captiva, Fort Myers Beach, Gasparilla Island, Pine Island, Lehigh Acres and North Fort Myers. The news sites also offer mobile editions that allow you to access any site via your cell phone or PDA device.
- E-mail alerts. Registered users can sign up to get an e-mail whenever an event is posted containing the keywords that interests them.
- Advertising options also have been improved on the site. Local business now have more options to get their messages across, including more sizes of ads, even the option to put their newspaper ads on the home page.
We are working hard to assure the site is as relevant to our online readers as possible, bringing you in a digital format the news and information you need and want.
Jack Glarrow is publisher of Breeze Newspapers.
"That doesn't necessarily say on paper. This technology allows us to offer this in a different form. Anything we can do to stay on mission, break news more quickly, to go into deep subjects about living in Southwest Florida, we're going to jump on it, and absolutely it gives us more tools to do that."
The Breeze previously expanded the new Web site format to its other publications throughout Lee and Charlotte county, and will continue to stay current with internet publishing.
"It's a developing technology," Glarrow said. "It's still new and we're still looking for ways to improve it every day. We're all learning together, and we're offering new services as we identify their value."
Flguide.com can also be accessed from any of our newspaper Web sites.
