AURORA | The Aurora Media Group announced Tuesday it will continue its strategic change of the Aurora Sentinel and its family of products by moving its daily news editions to digital media and launch expanded weekly print editions May 5.
"Our decision to transform ourselves into a digital media company is consistent with the way people consume and produce news," said Aurora Sentinel and Buckley Guardian Publisher James Gold. "It is the future of local media."
The new Sentinel and Guardian will more closely reflect what readers want from a printed news edition, focusing on stories, photos, columns and features that give depth and meaning to news about the community and the metro area, Gold said. The changes also address how consumers demand immediacy from developing stories and prefer being able to get that information digitally, either on a computer or a mobile device or phone.
The last daily print edition of the Aurora Sentinel will publish May 4, coinciding with changes on the Aurora Sentinel website at www.aurorasentinel.com. Instead, expanded news offerings, video and a variety of ways for the community to discuss the news will be available online and through other media portals. The next day, the redesigned weekly Aurora Sentinel and Buckley Guardian will hit the stands and be distributed through home and business delivery.
The changes are being made to allow reporters and photographers to bring readers the news they want faster to computers and phones, according to Aurora Sentinel Editor Dave Perry.
"We're positioning the Aurora Sentinel to report and reflect on the news of the day in ways our readers need and want, instead of being constrained by arbitrary, outdated deadlines," Perry said. "The bottom line is, the daily news cycle is dead. Readers are no longer interested in reading stale stories long after it was news. We can offer news while it's current, and make the best use of print for readers who want more than just roundups and updates."
The focus of the Sentinel products will not only expand news offerings, but living and guide features, too.
The Sentinel, the Guardian and our digital editions will include a completely new entertainment and living section, said Content Director John Lehndorff.
"The Guide will feature the top things to do every week - concerts, professional sports, family festivals, stage shows, tasting events, competitions and more in Aurora and the entire metro area," Lehndorff said. "Inside The Nest, readers will find timely features by veteran local journalists about creating a comfier home and garden, staying fit, saving money on everything, and cooking with Colorado's best ingredients."
Gold is managing partner of Aurora Media Group, parent company of the Sentinel and associated media products. Gold and Tom Ratkovich also co-direct Leap Media Partners, which created the Aurora Media Group. The Aurora newspapers were sold to Aurora Media Group Feb. 24 for an undisclosed price.
The 102-year-old newspaper has covered Aurora as a weekly, a daily and as a digital media company while the city grew from a rural hamlet east of Denver to become an exurb of 310,000 people, Buckley Air Force Base and the massive Fitzsimons medical and research complex.
The newspaper has changed hands and names under a variety of private and corporate owners over the decades. Once part of the Sentinel news group under the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the paper was sold to local owners at the Aurora Publishing Co. in 1991 and remained under that banner until now.
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