RRStar.com launched on a new site design last night.  We call this template the “Rockford template.” Previously, we launched a template on chicagosuburbannews.com that we now call the “Kiowa template.”

Next month, a third generation GateHouse Media template will hit the web.  I won’t tell you just when, where and what yet.
We will also continue to iterate on these templates.  We are especially eager to incorporate some upgrades to the Kiowa templates. Our plan is to have a series of highly modular, customizable and flexible templates for our newspaper sites to pick from.  We’re taking what I would call a very object-oriented approach with the idea that behind the scenes we have the benefits of being cookie cutter, but from a retail view (the side users see), no two sites really look the same. That will take time to develop and perfect, but we have a good foundation in place now.

There are, of course, issues with RRStar.com to tweak and fix, but as is our motto: “We’ll get there. It will be fine.”

We also have a long list of features and functionality to roll out that will help us archive our community-focused goals.  We’ll get there. It will be fine.