The Beacon is thrilled to announce our brand new website, thebeaconnews.org, launched on May 28! Our team has been working hard over the last year to create a dynamic digital experience that inspires readers to connect with our public service journalism on a deeper level. 

You’ll now be able to navigate The Beacon’s four newsrooms on a consolidated platform, making it easier than ever to find the stories that matter most to you. Among the new features is a “community sourced” story tag, illustrating how ideas and questions from readers directly inform our articles. You’ll also discover an innovative “takeaways” section on many of our new stories, developed to accommodate requests for digestible highlights from our community.

Here’s a break down of what’s new:

• A new, four-in-one destination
• Mobile-first design
• Republishing, simplified
• Incorporating community feedback
• Prioritizing accessibility
• Framing local journalism as a public service
• The faces behind the relaunch

A new, four-in-one destination

We’ve gone from three separate domains down to one, bringing together all our content under the banner of “The Beacon” for the first time. We hope this allows you to more seamlessly discover the full breadth of our reporting across Kansas and Missouri. This transition enables  you to seamlessly jump from the latest local Wichita stories to Kansas statehouse news, before heading over to see what’s going on in Kansas City’s labor market. Every newsroom has its own landing page, so you can find the local news you’re looking for in addition to exploring everything the expanded site has to offer.

If you’ve been following The Beacon, you won’t be surprised to see dedicated newsrooms for Wichita and Kansas City. But wait, there’s more! Two additional newsrooms made their debuts this week. You’ll now be able to visit all our Kansas and Missouri coverage on their respective landing pages, packed with stories that cater to a statewide audience. As we work toward increased coverage across the region, you’ll see these newsrooms grow with each passing month.

Mobile-first design

We designed our new website to be mobile-first to meet the growing trend of readers accessing our news on their smartphones, accounting for over 60% of total site visitors. By partnering with  Brightside to design the website for mobile, we’ve created a seamless and optimized user experience for the majority of users, enhancing readability and navigation.

We’re confident this format will increase usability and accessibility and draw new readers to our site, getting local news at the source rather than relying on constantly evolving social media algorithms. A mobile-first strategy brings our newsrooms up to date with current digital best practices, improving our site’s performance and SEO to get more free news in front of people who need it most. If you’re a desktop visitor to our website, never fear. We’ve applied this same cohesive design to your experience, with a layout refined to fill larger screens.

Republishing, simplified

We’ve made it easier than ever to republish our stories, which are free for anyone to repost online, or in print, under a Creative Commons license. We want our stories shared widely and for no cost to help other news organizations supplement their own reporting with articles by Beacon journalists. This means we welcome and encourage you to republish our reporting, whether you’re an editor or an independent blogger. Our mission as a nonprofit is to pursue journalism in the public interest, so we want to reach as many people as possible.

Incorporating community feedback

Before redesigning our website, we met with our Community Journalism Lab members in both Wichita and Kansas City to talk about what was working well and what parts of our website needed improvement.

Two big features came out of these initial discussions.

First, we heard that asking for story “tips” was confusing and the process in place was too time-consuming. We collectively arrived at the decision to simplify the submission form to its most essential questions posed in a clear voice. Instead of asking for tips, you’ll see calls for “story ideas and questions” across our website. Perhaps most significantly, our new website closes the circle between community ideas and published stories by adding a “Community Sourced” tag at the top of every article that was based on an idea that came from a reader.

We also heard from our Community Journalism Lab that while they were often interested in an article’s headline, even our most engaged audience didn’t have time to always read the full investigation. It was clear to our product and audience directors that we needed to build in a more sophisticated, intentional way to deliver the core findings to visitors with limited time. When you find a “Takeaways” drop-down on any Beacon story, we invite you to click and expand the hot takes for a preview of what’s included.

Prioritizing accessibility

Going into the redesign, we knew accessibility was a top priority.

This started with a brand refresh that reconsidered The Beacon’s look. We traded a classic serif body font for a new sans serif font, which is easier to read on device screens thanks to a simpler design. We swapped out an array of competing colors for a predominantly black and white palette that is complemented by accessible colors that  contain enough contrast to be distinguishable by individuals with visual impairments. 

“Our design process focused on creating an enhanced user experience for all visitors,” said Katie Koch, co-founder of Brightside Creative, who led The Beacon’s website redesign. “We ensured that components were consistent, engaging, and accessible while representing the overall Beacon brand. Features like audio readers, color palettes, content tabbing, and device responsiveness contribute to an inclusive and user-friendly site. Additionally, we implemented image alt tags and carefully ordered content to support audio reader devices. Accessibility is an ongoing process, and The Beacon is committed to continually improving their site to meet the evolving needs of all users.”

Framing local journalism as a public service

Since 2004, 1,800 communities have lost their local newsroom. And that’s a crisis. We believe that local news has the power to be your primary, trusted source for information about issues that affect you and your family. Having a shared understanding of what’s happening in our local government, public schools and housing market is absolutely essential.

For example, if you don’t know who’s running for office and what they stand for, how can you vote for change you want to see?

Aspiring to be a go-to resource for educating and informing our community on current issues is where our new, contextual beat pages stem from. When you click into any topic in our Kansas City and Wichita newsrooms, you’ll be greeted by a reporter explaining why The Beacon covers that specific beat. 
We’re also committed to telling the story of our community impact, launching a non-editorial series called Behind the Beacon. Follow the difference our work makes on this living blog, as we work together to build a more connected city.

The faces behind the relaunch

In a process that took nearly a year, from initial brand refresh to a new public domain, we consulted our community journalism lab representatives, reporting staff and supporters on what they’d like to see from a new website. Our product and audience team combined this wish list with their own, and brought that full list to Kansas City-based marketing firm Brightside Creative, who led our team through an intensive mapping session to further define the audience we were building this new website for.

Once the site was mapped, Brightside brought the brand to life in a comprehensive design that prioritized clarity and user experience. Our partner, Newspack, translated the visual layouts into the functioning website you see today. 

Have ideas of resources or features you’d like to see us include in the future? Drop us a line at hello@thebeacon.media — we’d love to hear from you!