Over the past few months you have probably noticed a few changes on kgw.com. A few months back we started doing a daily Webcast on the site anchored by Tracy Barry. We try and post this Webcast every day at 3:45 p.m. It contains the top stories of the day, many of which have not aired on Northwest NewsChannel 8. It's a good way to get a quick update on the news of the day between our noon news and our 5 p.m. newscast. You can access it at home or even at work.

Late last year we also launched Video on Demand. You can find this on the right side of your home page. We post some of the best video stories of the day here. We also post some very visual video excerpts. Sometimes you get more extensive video here than you might see on air. For example, you might see extended interviews with newsmakers. The nice thing is you can produce your own news by clicking only on the stories you want to watch.

Last December we produced a live newscast exclusively for kgw.com one night when we had no early evening newscast on air because of Blazers basketball. That newscast was 16 minutes long and contained all the top national, international and local stories of the day and a complete weathercast. We have the chance to do it again this Friday, March 17, when we have no early-evening news. You can watch kgw.com at 5 p.m. and get the same high quality news that you are used to getting on NewsChannel 8.

There is another change which you won't notice on the web. We are losing our kgw.com site manager, Jim Parker. Jim has been with kgw.com for nearly five years. For the past four years, Jim has been in charge of the news on kgw.com. We are going to miss Jim and we appreciate all he has done to build kgw.com into one of the best local news web sites in the country.

I am currently interviewing many well-qualified candidates to replace Jim as manager of kgw.com. I hope to name his successor in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, we will continue to make kgw.com the place you come to for the best local web news, information and weather.

As you can see, we are never standing still either on Northwest NewsChannel 8 or on kgw.com. We are always looking for better ways to provide you the best news, weather, sports and information. In the months ahead, I promise you will see other content improvements on kgw.com. As they say, stay tuned. . .

Rod Gramer
Executive News Director