PressReader’s “page view” lets you see the paper exactly how it’s printed (with full color photos).

Back in June 2019, we announced a new online experience for The Swarthmorean, the centerpiece of which was a newly designed, robust website. The website offered a limited amount of free content to non-subscribers (usually our featured article on the front page) and offered access to the rest of each issue behind a paywall (those with the appropriate subscription were granted digital access). The website provided features and functionality that our printed paper could not, and also enabled subscribers to enjoy the paper any way they wanted—by flipping printed pages at their leisure over the weekend, or by reading it on their mobile devices anytime, anywhere.

The website has served its purpose over the last couple of years. But it’s become apparent that we need to enhance the digital experience to more closely align with our readers’ expectations. For instance, some subscribers have assumed that our weekly email newsletter is a digital version of the paper (it’s not: it only highlights the contents of the paper each week in an email digest). Some subscribers have expressed a wish that the ads in the print paper would also appear online (I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting that)! And some subscribers have wanted an online digital replica of the paper that looks and works just like the print paper). Also, transferring the contents of the print paper to our website each week has been unduly time-consuming.

We’ve found a solution that we are very excited about, and we hope you will be too. It’s powered by Pressreader, an industry leader in digital solutions for content publishers.

This month, we’ll be unveiling our new e-edition of The Swarthmorean. It will completely replace our current website. At the core of the experience will be a robust digital replica of the paper (called “page view”) — an online experience that looks and feels exactly like the print paper.

The features available for each article.

The new e-edition offers some key enhancements that we think you’ll love, including:

Full color images
Clickable hyperlinks
All the print version’s advertisements (including classifieds)—which will be clickable
Content-sharing function
Commenting function (including the ability to upvote or downvote readers’ comments)
Content listening function (have the content read to you as audio by your device)
Printing capability
Full content translation
Ability to export content to e-readers
Ability to view content either in “page view” or as HTML text
Complete access to The Swarthmorean’s archives of issues from 2019 through 2021 (more to be added later)
Robust search function (even across issues)

All this functionality will be available on your desktop computer, your mobile web browser, and (drumroll, please)—through our very own branded apps for both iOS and Android. To read The Swarthmorean, all you’ll need to do is download the app and fire it up.

Those of you who already have digital access will automatically have access to the new e-edition once it launches. (You’ll receive an email with instructions on how to establish your credentials and log in.) And those of you who don’t yet have digital access and would like to add it can do so for only $1 more per month (and only $10 more per year for seniors). Just let us know, and we’ll get you set up.

We’re excited about this new offering, and we hope you will be too. It’s one of the ways we continue to serve Swarthmore and our surrounding communities.