SARASOTA, FL - September 1, 2006 - atLarge, an award-winning privately held interactive agency, recently launched YourObserver.com to bridge the digital gap between Sarasota's most popular weekly newspaper and the online medium. For years, The Observer Group's eight community weekly newspapers had been the premier source for community news and events relevant to their prospective community niches. The Observer Group, owners of the successful weeklies, were now poised to enter the digital space by showcasing the community papers in an interactive, engaging manner.
Terry Dukes, The Observer Group vice president and The Sarasota Observers publisher said “we had an idea of what we wanted the site to be, and atLarge brought it to life ten-fold. YourObserver.com is all the things our users wanted: handsome, well-organized, seamless and user-friendly. From concept, to strategy, to implementation and follow-up usage reports, atLarge not only responded, but led us to state-of-the-art standards."
With the increasing competition among print papers and the growing online news consumption, we knew we had to push the envelope to create an enduring, gripping social destination said atLarge President Anand Pallegar. YourObserver.com has fulfilled a need as the first interactive events site in the region. The site boasts a user-generated events calendar and searchable photo galleries. Visitors can also read daily news features, browse upcoming events and input events right into their PDA or Outlook Calendar from within the site. They can also bookmark photos, send photos to friends and have their favorite pictures professionally printed and delivered to their door.
"What users don't see is how atLarge, Inc. integrated the maintenance of the site into our existing workflow--and not the other way around," says Dukes. The functionality of the site gives YourObserver staff the ability to immediately upload photos following the many events they cover in the Sarasota area. This unique feature has boosted YourObserver.com above the competition, driving repeat visitors with strong brand engagement.
