Many may be wondering…where has The Oracle gone? Yes, it is obvious that the school's newspaper is no longer available in print, but every story is still available on our new website. This reporter is here to give the students at KHS an insight as to why the staff of the school’s newspaper has discontinued the print version and gone strictly online.

It is becoming a worldwide phenomenon among printed publications to gear their format toward the tech savvy people of our population. It seems more than ever people are canceling newspaper subscriptions due to a free version online. While many popular newspapers and magazines still publish a print version, others have gone to only online issues. It follows the trend in our society; how many people still receive a daily newspaper?

This is the first year staff members Jack Boyer, Summer Phillips, Sarah Schrag, and Cody Wagner and instructor Mrs. Albright have ever attempted to solely use an online website for displaying articles to the public. Last year there was much discussion on how this would work out and who all was willing to try something new. Through experimentation last year, staff members Jack Boyer and Sarah Schrag with the help of Mrs. Albright chose a template that became the home site for The Oracle Online. The school bought hosting from InMotionHosting.com to get the project rolling. Later on, a purchase for a template was made from Joomla. Mr. Dennis Albright was a great help in setting up and customizing the template many people view currently.

In the first semester of the new website, many students have been missing the printed version, but on the other hand, a positive turn out has come from the website. Students spend a lot of time on computers, more this year compared to years past. Why waste the paper if students are already online? As the year has gone on, the staff has seen a steady rise in viewers. Our administrative site allows the staff to check how many hits an article receives. Overall, the general reaction to the new look has been very positive as many students have commented that they really like the layout and design.

Many students may wonder how we choose what stories to post and how long they stay posted. The answer to that question is simple - same as any paper does. It is based on what stories the public wants to read or be informed about. Currently, we keep articles available as long as they are still gaining hits. Orders are changed so that when new stories become available these categories will pop up first. Journalism teacher Mrs. Jill Albright commented, “As our staff grows, I hope to be able to move articles more quickly. We have new content weekly, but still offer articles from previous weeks.”

In the future, The Oracle Online is hoping to offer more video, podcasts, and polls. At the moment the journalism department is a little short handed and therefore having to focus more on just producing article content.

If students who are not part of the Oracle staff would like to submit an article about an event, club, or just let us know about things that might make a good feature, they can e-mail or share a document with Mrs. Albright or staff members Sarah Schrag, Jack Boyer, Cody Wagner, or Summer Phillips.