The Valley Courier is excited to announce a brand new look and a whole new functionality for our website, which changes the way our readers can interact with us.

To keep up with the changing times and growing social media trends, our newspaper is changing its Internet presence. Our new website even changes the way we present our stories to you.

Instead of going online to find a snippet of our front page stories and sports articles that you must scroll to read, readers will find individual links to stories we write and publish in the print edition. Click on the headlines, and it will take you to the story.

Readers can even discuss the story in the comments section within the same page. We ask that you not use foul language, make inflammatory remarks, or post potentially slanderous and libelous statements. Furthermore, we ask that online readers respect the differing opinions of other readers, especially on controversial topics.

While we will monitor comments and ban users for inappropriate behavior, we cannot always immediately get to every story in a timely manner, and due to our small staff numbers, we cannot spend our hours policing comments on a 24-hour, seven days a week, basis.

We expect our readers to use our new features in a responsible manner. Regardless, inappropriate behavior happens online all the time, and we’ve certainly seen more than enough of it on our Facebook.

As a disclaimer, readers’ comments and points of view are their own, and are not necessarily expressions of our own.

Additionally, pictures that we cannot use in the print edition, due to spacing limitations, may now be included in our online articles. Because articles will be posted individually in their own page, we can share links with you on Facebook and Twitter, so please consider following us to keep up.

Breaking news items can now be reported in a more timely fashion, via the website. We will still cover these news items in our print edition, but are capable of getting you the basics much sooner. However, please keep in mind, we are a small staff, and we would prefer to bring you accurate news than to be the first to break it.

We already post obituaries online after the publication date. However, with the coming changes, we can quickly and more easily publish obituaries online, prior to their print publication in our paper, allowing families and friends to see an upcoming service that will occur before the next edition comes out. 

Readers can share links to our individual stories and obituaries with others online, as well, reducing the need to search or scroll to find the story.

In addition to sports, news and obituaries, we will be able to post editorials, legals and classified ads.

We will start with newer content for current editions, but as time permits, staff members will post older articles, one by one.

We are very excited to bring you this fresh new look and new way to interact with us, but please keep in mind that this is new to us, and there could be issues as we move forward.

We ask for your patience, and that any and all problems are reported to us at 719-589-2553 or by email at [email protected], as they occur. If we don’t know it’s a problem, we can’t work to fix it.

If you are having issues logging into alamosanews.com, please contact Shasta Quintana at 589-2553, or [email protected].

Our subscribers can login with their email address that is on file with our circulation department. Your password should be the same as used previously, but if you’re still having issues, please contact Shasta.

Any current bookmarks need to be replaced with the new website at alamosanews.com. If that doesn’t work, please try www.alamosanews.com. And if you’re still having issues, please contact Shasta.

Our new website is totally secure in spite of some messages sent to the contrary.

Please enjoy our new site and feel free to send us comments.