The Forsyth County News has a new digital home.
Beginning Wednesday, users can see the all-new ForsythNews.com at anvil-prod.forsythnews.com. The beta site is set to officially go live in several days.
“We couldn’t be more excited about our enhanced digital presence,” Publisher Vince Johnson said. “Though we’ve seen tremendous digital growth in recent years, we fully believe in the concept of constant improvement. This new site gives us the opportunity to better serve our readers and advertisers in a way unparalleled for media companies our size.”
ForsythNews.com currently reaches more than 200,000 unique users each month, according to Google Analytics – more than any other local media outlet in Forsyth County. The United States Census Bureau estimates the population of Forsyth County at just over 220,000.
The new site features a responsive design to any screen or device, infinite scrolling, faster load times and enhanced features for image and video display.
“Our users are telling us that mobile and video are two of the most rapidly growing ways that they interact with the Forsyth County News, so we certainly want to follow that,” Johnson said.
The beta site will allow feedback from the community before the official launch. Any feedback or site improvement suggestions should be directed to editor@forsythnews.com.
The Forsyth County News was selected as a media partner in building the new site by Morris Technology, a technology company based in Savannah with media clients throughout the country. The platform, called Anvil, will soon be available nationwide.
“We are tremendously excited to be able to work with Forsyth County News as a launch partner for the Anvil platform, but also leveraging this national award-winning digital media team’s experience to bring a website that increases the user’s ability to get to content with a responsive design focused on very rich multimedia content,” said Jim Goodlett, president of Morris Technology. “The Anvil platform allows the Forsyth County News team to report quickly from anywhere using any mobile device to capture action as it happens. And better so, the user’s experience on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices means less clicking and more getting to content with infinite scrolling among a host of new features.”
The Forsyth County News was named the 2016 Mega-Innovation Award Winner for newspapers of any size, and in April, the FCN staff led all Georgia newspapers in Associated Press contest finalists.
"We are looking forward to being able to offer our news consumers and customers a world class experience with the launch of our new Anvil site," said Charles Hill Morris Jr., regional manager of Morris Multimedia, the parent company of the Forsyth County News.
Future developments to the FCN’s digital platform will be released throughout the year. When the new site goes live, the URL will remain ForsythNews.com.