Still Life with Editor: Brian K. Mahoney posing with nectarine behind Chronogram’s Kingston office.
It was not my idea to overhaul Chronogram.com. Not by a long shot. Partly because I am risk-averse and change-phobic—editors are upholders of tradition after all, and what is tradition if not an unchanging set of rules? I was happy with the existing configuration of our website, a static mirror of this magazine’s content—articles, photos, calendar listings, and advertiser directories—rendered in ones and zeros and arranged in the cramped style I associated with the general design aesthetic of the Web. It served a couple of useful purposes, however, allowing all those outside our region and those who missed picking up a paper version of the magazine access to it. The Website was also a digital archive dating back to 1996 (the Internet Stone Age), and, verily, much of our Web traffic historically has been from readers viewing back issues of the magazine. We even picked up a few thousand far-flung Web-only readers along the way.
While it was my subconscious intention to let the innovations of the Web pass us by, as had the Internet boom of the late ‘90s (a point upon which I feel thoroughly vindicated), it was not to be. Earlier this year, this magazine’s publisher, Jason Stern, got a bee in his bonnet about Chronogram.com and articulated the idea that our website, six years into the new millennium, might begin to utilize some of this century’s technology—video, audio, blogs, podcasting, RSS feeds, tagged databases, Web-only articles, and the like. (Jason, you must understand, is an adventurous and visionary sort. If you ask him to jump, he won’t inquire as to, “How high?” but rather, “Into what uncharted territory?”)
And so, it has come to pass that Chronogram.com has been completely reenvisioned, reconfigured, and redesigned. With the assistance of Evolving Media Network, a Kingston-based Web-development firm, we’ve created what we not so humbly believe to be the most comprehensive online cultural resource in the Hudson Valley, as well as an interactive forum for the Chronogram community. We’ve done this is in a number of ways. First, we scrapped the idea that each month’s Web content was like so many magazines—stacked one on top of another and not relating to each other in any meaningful way. While we will still upload each magazine’s content to the Web on the first of the month, each article will link to other articles, calendar listings, video, blogs, and audio in its category. For instance, a profile of painter James Dustin on our revamped site contains links to listings of upcoming shows, links to other artist’s profiles, links to articles by the same writer, and a Chronogram-exclusive video tour of Dustin’s studio, led by the artist. Second, we’ve created a user-profile system that allows registered users to track their favorite features and organize the site around their personal preferences. Once registered, readers are also able to post comments on any content, enabling the Chronogram community to engage in multi-tiered discussions with writers, editors, and other readers. Third, we’ve created a new site aesthetic, bringing it more into line with the look of the print version.
Of course, there’s more, all exclusive to Chronogram.com: A dozen bloggers, writing on everything from parenthood to the local theater scene to holistic health; daily updated calendar listings presented in an easy-to-use format and maps associated with each listing so you’ll know how to get to the event once you decide what to do; streaming audio from reviewed music and featured musicians; short videos of profiled artists; films from local filmmakers; and more.
To celebrate the unveiling of the new Chronogram.com, we are throwing a Web-launch party on Friday, January 12 at the Shirt Factory (across from the main post office) in Kingston. The Shirt Factory, is, as you might have guessed, a vacant industrial building formerly used in the manufacture of apparel. For our party, the ex-factory will be transformed into a multimedia performance and dance space. Entertainment will be provided by ReadNex Poetry Squad, a hip hop/spoken-word collective. DJs LadyVerse and Anthony Molina (of Mercury Rev) will be spinning rock, hip hop, and house grooves into the night for our ecstatic dancing pleasure. Refreshments of various stripes will be available.
Tickets are $12 at the door, but we are offering a Web-only promotion for discounted admission. If you become a registered user at Chronogram.com—it’s free and it doesn’t take long—your name will be added to our VIP list and you’ll receive $5 admission. Web-Launch Party: Friday, January, 12, 9pm. Shirt Factory, 77 Cornell St., Kingston. This is the most exciting development this publication has undergone since we changed to our larger-print format in 1999. Please visit and take advantage of our new website—we built it for you.
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