Reporter staff

The website for the Covington-Maple Valley-Black Diamond Reporter is getting a fresh look that will help readers get faster access to local news – and more of it.

The new crisp-and-clean design makes space for more stories and photographs on the newspaper’s home page, and also offers easier access to readers on the go.

The home page is topped by a new navigation bar which boasts a quick-glance box for current weather conditions. Also at the top: Icons for mobile applications and social media, so readers can quickly share stories and news with others.

The website – www.covingtonreporter.com or www.maplevalleyreporter.com – will continue to use the “river of news” format – with the most current content appearing at the top of the home page – though top stories will feature larger photographs, plus larger headlines and summaries.

As more stories and features are published each day, older stories will carry smaller headlines and flow toward the bottom of the homepage.

The box for “trending stories” – articles that are connecting with readers and being shared and read more often than other content – will also be repositioned on the home page; higher, for faster access for readers.

Online readers should notice more news on the website’s front page.

“We’re actually fitting more content on the page than before,” said Seth Long, director of digital media for Sound Publishing.

Stories will also be easier to share. Underneath each story byline, readers will find options for emailing the article, printing a copy or sending a letter to the editor about the topic.

At the bottom of each story page, readers will also find links to related articles, as well as trending stories.

“We’ve improved the presentation of the story; the typography is better, it’s easier to read, it’s easier to find sharing tools and it’s easier to find related and trending content,” Long said.

The website update is being launched across most of Sound Publishing’s titles, though the websites for paid-access newspapers will share a slightly different makeover.

It’s the first update to Sound Publishing websites – which boast 2.2 million unique visitors and 11.5 million page views a month – since 2010.