Pecos Enterprise goes worldwide on the web  

From the Pecos Enterprise column, SQUARELY PEGGED, by Peggy McCracken  

July 30, 1996

 O.K., we're up and running on the Internet. If you have Internet connections, look us up at http://www.pecos.net/news.

 So far, we have the most important local stories and opinion, special section (Living off the Land this week), classified and The Monahans News.

 We've reserved a section for advertising, so anyone who has a message to send to the world should contact Christina Bitolas, Cara Alligood or Mac McKinnon to reserve space.

 Folks, this has been an education and continues to be for me and for the entire staff. It was my idea and I kept feeding Mac goodies about it until he got so excited he pushed me to get it done yesterday. Many of those long weekends I regretted ever suggesting it.

 Everything I knew about the Internet I learned from askSam, so I used their database program to prepare the copy. They have a new program that prepares copy in HTML, a language that web browsers can read.

 They put up an early version of the page on their server so I could see what it would look like with their Web Publisher. The copy looks the same, but accessing it is a little different than with a web browser. Preparing the copy for it is so much simpler than for other servers that

I almost signed a contract with them.

 Then Dick Alligood at Oilfield Phone Service helped me get it up on the local Internet server July 5, just as I was leaving on vacation. When I got back and caught up a little, I began training the staff to prepare daily copy to update the site.

 Cross your fingers and hope we have it down straight. In making the first update Saturday, I accidently downloaded the entire BitStreet file to my computer. BitStreet is the name of the server where our pages are located. But you don't have to go through BitStreet to get there. Just type http://www.pecos.net/news in the LOCATION box at the top of your

web server.

 Our e-mail address is news@bitstreet.com. Write a note telling us what you think of the web site and how we can improve it. We'll be making changes as we have time. Mostly on weekends.

 One of the things we'll be working on is putting photos and graphics onto the pages. I started with plain text because it is easier to deal with and takes less time for the user to download. But I think judicious use of photos will add to the text. And certainly we will use them in

advertising.

 It took a lot of prayer for me to get this far, so I say with the psalmist:  "I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; before the "gods" I will sing your praise."   Psalm 138:1, NIV.

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The follow is republished (with permission) from the Front Page of the Pecos Enterprise, July 30, 1996.

Monday marked the beginning of a new era for the Pecos Enterprise, when  it joined the growing number of newspapers on the Worldwide Web.

Mac McKinnon, Enterprise publisher, said he is pleased to offer computer users access to local news, sports, weather, classified, advertising and special sections.

As a bonus, The Monahans News also has a page on the site, and it will be updated weekly. Area news from other weekly publications is included in the "Area Roundup."

"We are making our pages available at no charge to the user," McKinnon said. "By doing so, we hope to boost the Trans Pecos area while reaching a wider audience with news of interest to them."

McKinnon noted that the Pecos Division of federal court serves 10 West Texas counties. But trials in that court often involve a much larger area and impact people throughout Texas and, often, the nation.

"Pecos is the hub of a lot of activity that impacts other areas," McKinnon said. "Therefore, we believe our newspaper will provide a service to many outside our circulation area."

A section of the on-line newspaper is set aside for advertising, McKinnon said.

"Our staff can design display ads with graphics and/or photographs to give your message that special impact," he said. "To reserve space, contact Christina Bitolas, Cara Alligood or myself."

The web page address is http://www.pecos.net/news.

Peggy McCracken is an Enterprise writer and editor whose column appears each Tuesday.