By Joe Tucker
The nightwatch Newspaper, which hit the headlines less than a year ago in Sierra Leone, is now online at www.nightwatchsl./wwwfacebook.com/nwatchpress/. This development is to enable its readership be able to access the publications of the paper both at home and abroad.
In the business world, the business owner should know where his consumers are and his consumers should be able to reach him through other means. This is why a website is paramount especially when nightwatch is part of the media landscape in Sierra Leone.
The opening of the website, on Friday the 23rd February 2018, has been followed with the training of its reporters on basic skills, such as how to write and upload on the site, including other issues of navigating through and back into the site.
Emmanuel C. Thorli  Proprietor and Managing Editor stated that this is a dream come true ‘’ we had wanted to ensure that we cater for a variety of readers both online and those who can read our hard copies ‘’he stated. We want to ensure that we maintain very high standards, and also have an international coverage .Coming online just after seven months was achieved through hard work. I want to commend members of my team and all those who have helped me towards this end.
Mr. Mohamed Kamara, Founder and Managing Director ‘Jamboree Consult,’ facilitated the training of the new introduced system. The topical highlights of the training were: Introduction to www.nightwatchsl.com website; Writing for the web vs. Writing for the Print; Brief introduction to Social Media Authority; Training on Website updating and Feedbacks.
At the end of the training, the nightwatch reporters learned that web writing and print writing are similar, but require different skills. Both forms of writing should be meaningful and interesting to the readers even though there is a big difference between readers who are browsing the web for news and other contents, and those who settle down with a physical book or magazine.
The website has a PDF file to enable readers and viewers of our newspaper get access to read and download a copy of each edition that is published. It consists of different web pages in the likes of sports, articles, editorial, gender and religion that will be accessible to viewers and readers. Spaces are also available to enable readers and viewers to give their views and comments on stories that are published to enable staffs respond with immediate effect. Exclusive stories would be published to enable readers get full contents in subsequent editions.
The Paper is going online at a critical stage as Sierra Leoneans abroad are increasingly looking out for alternative means to get news about Sierra Leone and the forthcoming elections.
We are seven months and we have been maintaining an objective independent and neutral stance on the reporting of news about our country. As we continue this trend of hard work, we implore all our readers to make use of the website and send in your meaningful comments and observations on our work.