South Jetty launches online edition
BY MARY HENKEL JUDSON SOUTH JETTY South

Retired Port Aransas City First online Manager Tom Brooks takes a break from tending to the peach, apple and plum trees, and grape vines he raises tp enjoy the last hard copy of the South Jetty that he has received. Brooks was the first person to register to receive future editions of the South Jetty online. He says that it will now be difficult to get his garden tractor into his office to sit on while reading future editions of the South Jetty on his computer. The online edition is pictured at left. The South Jetty introduces the online edition this week at www.portasouthjetty.com.

The South Jetty is introducing its online edition this week. Online browsers will be able to access the entire newspaper, including reproductions of each page of the newspaper, (known as PDFs) by going online to www.portasouthjetty.com.

This week's edition may not be available until late today, Thursday, Aug. 24, for Internet customers who are served by CenturyTel.

Effective with the Sept. 21 edition, a subscription will be required to view the full online edition. Internet users going to the South Jetty Web site will be able to see the first few lines of each story. If they want to view the entire story they can click on "More", which will lead them to an online subscription form.

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New subscribers will have a choice of subscribing to the online and/or print edition of the newspaper. Subscribers to the print edition may add an online subscription for an additional $10. The online subscription will expire at the same time as the print edition subscription. Renewal notices for both will be sent, and subscribers

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may opt for the print edition, online edition, or both.

The rate for an online subscription will be $26, the same as the in-county print edition rate, no matter where the subscriber lives.

In-county subscribers to the print edition may take advantage of the combination rate of $36 for both the print and online editions.

The combination rate for out-ofcounty subscribers will be $39, which is $10 over the out-of-county rate for the print edition.

The combination rate for subscribers in foreign countries will be $66.50, also $10 over the rate for the print edition.

Subscribers who spend part of the year in Port Aransas and would like to read the print edition while they are here may purchase a combination subscription and have the print edition sent to their Port Aransas address. They still will be able to access the online edition.

New subscriptions to the online edition only will begin with the Sept. 21 edition.

Readers will be able to subscribe to the print and/or online editions by going to the South Jetty Web site and following the instructions.

The online edition will be presented in both text and PDF formats.

"The online edition will be a major advantage for our advertisers since it will allow readers to click on an ad in the text format that will bring the ad to full size on the viewer's screen. If the advertiser has a Web site link in the ad, the viewer can click on it," said Murray Judson, South Jetty copublisher.

Advertisers' display ads also will be found in a "marketplace" of similar ads, such as real estate and fishing/ boating, which are listed across the top of the home page.

Advertisers will enjoy the added value of the online edition exposure without a rate increase through the rest of the year, Judson said.

The online edition of the South Jetty will be posted sometime between 9 a.m. and noon each Thursday. Each edition will be online for a week, and then stories will be archived. Archives begin with the Aug. 10 edition.

"Our online edition offers a huge advantage to our out-of-town readers frustrated by having to wait up to a week or more for delivery of the print edition," said Mary Judson, editor and co-publisher of the South Jetty.

Launching of the online edition was announced last week on the South Jetty's Web site and "the response has been great. Readers have told us they are eager to subscribe to the online edition, which was posted Monday, Aug. 21, in areas outside of the CenturyTel service area," Murray Judson said.

"Our first online subscriber is former Port Aransas City Manager Tom Brooks, who sent an e-mail the minute he found out about the online edition," he said.

Before noon Monday, the South Jetty had received its first online subscription via the new online edition.

"An online edition is a perfect fit for the South Jetty's circulation that extends to the 50 states and several foreign countries," Murray Judson said.

Peter and Margaret Adams of Cardiff, Wales, will be among the first subscribers with a foreign address to switch to the online edition.

Their daughter, Ginny Shaw, buys her mother a subscription to the South Jetty for her birthday.

"They get it weeks later," Shaw said. "They'll be thrilled. That's how they keep in touch with their grandchildren."

"I might even get one for myself," Shaw added.