Pnj.com
- The correct title of this article is pnj.com. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
pnj.com[1] is the website of the Pensacola News Journal.
The News Journal first established an Internet presence in 1996 with gulfcoastgateway.com, a portal-style website that did not fully duplicate the printed paper's stories. The domain pensacolanewsjournal.com was registered in 1997,[1] becoming the primary URL, and most of the printed paper's content was made available at no cost.
In 2006, the newspaper acquired the coveted three-letter domain "pnj.com" from a Japanese metal trade press group that had previously held it. News Journal employee Anthony Cornealius, who spoke Japanese, helped initiate communication with the company and broker the sale, and the new domain went live on November 5.[2] Since that time, the website URL and logo have gained increasing prominence in the newspaper's promotional materials, including a first place location on the general logo and a new sign on its Romana Street headquarters.
On March 17, 2008, the site relaunched with a new design, organization and features as part of a Gannett-wide overhaul.
User content
The News Journal encourages user contribution through a story commenting system, community forums, and a featured called "GetPublished" that allows registered members to submit news items, events and photos.
For many years, the News Journal's website used the phpBB software for user registration, comments and forums. When the site relaunched on March 17, 2008, it had replaced the phpBB system Pluck's "SiteLife" software. A number of users who preferred the previous forum system migrated to a new site, gulfcoastgab.com.
Godzilla controversy
On October 4, 2007, the News Journal published an article by reporter Sara Rabb that revealed Escambia County School Board member Jeff Bergosh had been posting comments on the pnj.com forums under the pseudonym "Godzilla." Rabb purportedly noticed that "Godzilla's" posts were similar to the views expressed by Bergosh at School Board meetings, and she was able to confirm with the website's administrator that Bergosh's personal email address had indeed been used to register the account. Bergosh accused the News Journal of "outing" his identity on what he had believed was a safe outlet for anonymous opinion: "When the Pensacola News Journal created an anonymous forum, encouraging the use of pseudonyms, as to let people take down their guards and speaking in a frank manner regarding political ideas and thoughts, I jumped at the opportunity."[3] The publication pointed out that their website's current terms of use reserved "the right to identify you as the author of any of your postings or submissions by name, email address or screen name, as we deem appropriate."[4] The News Journal's decision to share details of their website registration database with the editorial staff was criticized by many members of the pnj.com forums and by other publications. According to the UWF Voyager, "A bias was inherent in that story — the bias to sell more newspapers."[5] The online editor for the Northwest Florida Daily News decried the exposé as "bush league."[6]
Outages
On the morning of May 14, 2007, visitors were redirected to a Network Solutions page with the following message:
- pnj.com expired on 05/08/2007 and is pending renewal or deletion.
The domain was likely not set to auto-renew.
The paper published an apology in the May 15 edition, and pnj.com was again directing to the News Journal website later that day.
References
- ↑ http://whois.domaintools.com/pensacolanewsjournal.com
- ↑ "Visit pnj.com -- Your fingers will thank you." Pensacola News Journal, November 5, 2006.
- ↑ Statement by Bergosh regarding Godzilla
- ↑ pnj.com Terms of Use
- ↑ "Newspapers should report, not exploit." The Voyager, October 11, 2007.
- ↑ Comments and Anonymity, October 9, 2007.
External links
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