Welcome to the brand new Isle of Wight news site, OnTheWight.
Formerly known as VentnorBlog, an award-winning Hyperlocal news site which ran for almost seven years, OnTheWight will continue to bring you news, views and reviews from across the Island, in the way that you’ve loved, but hopefully even more.
As you can see, it’s not just the name that has changed. OnTheWight’s newspaper-style layout will ensure you get to see the wide breadth of content published and hopefully you’ll find things that have been there, but you might not have seen before.
We know the changes could take you a little getting used to (that’s why we’ve been keeping you in the picture over the months), but we hope these changes will make the site all-the-more valuable to the Island, as you’ve told us VentnorBlog has become.
Very special thanks
Juggling the development of the new site, with its technical complexities, whilst continuing to publish 10-15 stories a day on VentnorBlog, has certainly been a challenge.
We couldn’t have done it without the help of some very special people.
First up, Isle of Wight graphic designer, Shaun Cuff. He’s been involved in the relaunch for well over a year, providing fantastic branding and design expertise along the way. Responding swiftly to brief and with the utmost professionalism, we’d have no hesitation in recommending Shaun for a design/branding job of any size.
On the technical side, WightGeek – who we’ve previously worked with on Armchair Auditor – has also been a great help. From assisting with css (Webpage layout) problems to server setup advice, it’s fantastic that he’s been there for us, always willing to help out as and when he can.
Fellow hyperlocal and WordPress master, Philip John from Lichfield Live has been amazingly supportive. Spending many hours discussing ideas, giving feedback and advice, Philip has shared ideas and acted as a much needed, objective sounding-board.
Thanks also to Island programmer Ben Haldenby for his afternoon of css wizardry early on in the creation. It was amazing how much difference a couple of hours with him really got us off to a strong start.
Thanks to you
Thanks also to all the VB readers who acted as testers for the new site, feeding back their user experiences and any bugs.
We’ve acted on many of the suggestions and others will be implemented over the coming weeks.
Finally, thanks to all our readers and advertisers who have supported VentnorBlog over the last (almost) seven years. Whether it be through supportive comments; personal donations; sponsored promotions or article contributions, your support means a lot to us.
Now starts a new chapter, VB has moved up a gear and OnTheWight is looking forward to a great future.
