The Editor's Desk

Yesterday, editors of Freedom Communications newspapers had several seminars regarding the future of our Web sites and newspapers (more are happening today).

One of the major focuses yesterday was on information databases for our sites, something we’ve wanted to do here at the Desert Dispatch, but lacked the tools and staff. For example, we held off posting our police logs in the way we posted typical stories, because we wanted to figure out a way to present them in a map format, the way a lot of larger newspaper sites do. Lacking the tools to do so, we decided to just go ahead and post them online anyway to fulfill readers’ needs.

Fortunately, our friends at our larger Freedom publications are working on tools to help us more easily build and develop our own databases to help Barstow residents find local information. In the future, expect to see more resources on our site to help you track down important local information.