About a week ago, you may have noticed that Village Green started looking a little different — and functioning, we hope, much better.
This renovation of VillageGreenNJ.com has been underway for the past few months behind the scenes, as we’ve worked with our developer Walsh Creative, to streamline our look and improve the User Experience for both mobile and desktop views. Although we are still working out some kinks, the conversion to the new theme is complete.
To get a little more granular: Village Green had previously been using a theme which is no longer supported and is not mobile responsive. But instead of going the route of many other small, independent publishers, which use technology that creates a separate mobile experience but limits the content and ads viewers can see on mobile — Village Green has invested in a seamless solution that improves our mobile functionality, boosting visibility for articles and for advertisers.
The new Village Green site offers the full website as a 100% mobile responsive solution. Additional ad placements have been created with unlimited potential for adding new zones on both mobile and desktop. We’ve also improved our Events Calendar with new search functionality and we are employing a calendar editor to ensure that it is populated with all local events and meetings.
As always, we remain committed to providing original, reported coverage of everything impacting your life here in Maplewood and South Orange and the surrounding community.
These investments would not be possible without the ongoing support of our advertisers and paywall subscribers. With your help, we have become the go-to news source in Maplewood and South Orange, averaging more than 40,000 unique visits per month to our website and reaching thousands daily through our newsletter and social media platforms.
Thank you all for a great 2016 and here’s hoping for all good news to report in 2017!
(Note: We’re always looking for feedback. Please let us know how you like the new look and functionality by emailing us at villagegreennj@gmail.com.)
I think you all are doing a fantastic job of community journalism. Thank you, again, for all the effort you put into making the Village Green a viable, integral part of this community. I look forward to reading it every day – first thing – even before I open up the New York Times. Seriously. — Beverley Awbrey
I love Village Green – you have done a wonderful job, as usual. I’ve been a subscriber for a while now…. Take care – and keep up the tremendous work. — Barbara Goldberg
You all have been doing an outstanding job covering everything. So glad to have the Village Green as a source of local news. — Teal Krech Paynter
It is an asset to the community…your news is so valuable and on point, keep up the good work … — Kristy Ranieri (Sustainable Jersey)
It’s been a great pleasure to be able to keep up with Maplewood news with reporting of such high quality. The writing is terrific and the journalistic standards consistently high. It’s elegantly designed…and easy to navigate. I had pretty much given up hope that Maplewood would ever get the news source it deserves; but lo and behold, here it is. Bravo, and thank you! — Tricia Tunstall
I just wanted to note to you guys that due to your diligence and straight-up reportage, I have ponied up the ‘big bucks’ for your [paywall].— John Branigan
Mary and Carolyn have become a true asset to our community through their tireless work steering the Village Green forward; my reliance on their work comes not only as a local business owner, but also as a citizen. — Marcy Thompson, Studio B
Thank you so much for the wonderful job you are doing with Village Green. I find myself clicking on great links to the site all the time(especially with the elections and school issues coverage). — Ananda Lima
The Village Green had become the trusted source for local news and information and has become part of the community fabric. And like all of our local businesses, institutions and services, The Village Green can only exist if the community supports it. I subscribe to the Village Green to ensure we have a reliable and well-reported news source for years to come. If you value community journalism, please subscribe as well. — Sarah Lester, Director, Maplewood Memorial Library
