I got my start on the Web with my hometown newspaper, the Savannah Morning News. After starting as an advertising site producer, I quickly moved to the editorial side to be Webmaster for our bureau in Hilton Head, SC and its site, LowcountryNOW.com.
At the time, I was so excited to appear on the local tv station, and think I did OK. Even though I struggle to go back and look at this now... "It's a website, plus!"
Soon I moved over to the main site, SavannahNOW, and became the Digital Media Manager. We did a ton of new online storytelling on 9/11, the 2000 Olympics (I took calls from our reporter in Australia to update the site overnight), local news, and live streamed the Savannah St. Patrick's Day Parade in collaboration with Ireland.com in 2001 (which involved a ladder, a rooftop tent, a PowerMac tower, and a VERY long ethernet cable).
When the Iraq War began in 2003, we sent a reporter and photographer in with the locally based 3rd Infantry Division of the Army. Our reporter used a satellite phone to give daily updates on the invasion's progress, and the photographer gave us daily slide show updates.
This was a huge advancement, with daily "newspaper" reporting from a war, all aggregated in a single location online. Our audience, many of whom had family in the invasion force, could rely on their hometown paper to keep them current on progress and on their soldiers. We won awards for this work from the Associated Press and Newspaper Association of America. Unfortunately, due to changes in ownership at the Morning News, this work is now lost. You can still find snapshots on the Internet Archive.
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