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All Access gives readers unlimited options

The Parkersburg News and Sentinel and The Marietta Times both started printing newspapers in the later part of the 1800s. By 1900 both newspapers were dailies.

Since that time, both newspapers have printed thousands of editions. Generations of readers have made reading the newspaper part of their day. Casually flipping through the pages, checking to see who passed away, what was on sale, if the neighbor kid scored a goal or made the honor roll at school – these casual observations were and are part of life in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Imagine if you would all those people, reading all those editions – there have literally been hundreds of thousands of people who have read the newspapers at one time or another. If you went back to the beginning though, there was a person that read them first.

Likely a pressman who grabbed the first edition of the newspaper off the press to check for errors. His named is lost to history, but the tradition he started continues to this day.

A new tradition is about to start, a new way to leaf through the newspaper. All Access makes its debut soon, and with it subscribers will gain a way to read the newspaper that duplicates the feeling of reading a newspaper as closely as you can without actually holding the paper in your hands.

With All Access you can read the paper on your computer, smart phone or tablet-every page of every section will have every article just as it appeared in print-and you can do so from any place in the world.

On tablets like an iPad, reading the newspaper feels a lot like, well, reading the newspaper. You turn the page by swiping it to the side. View the whole page, or enlarge it by spreading it with your fingers. You have the choice of reading the article in an e-reader simply by clicking on the headline. In the reader you can enlarge the type, email it to a friend, you can even have the news story read to you.

The newspaper on average will be delivered to you in about a minute.

Subscribers to the printed newspaper get All Access as part of their subscription. We will have digital subscriptions available to people that just want their news digitally. All subscribers will also have full access to the website.

A few weeks ago I was testing the web version of All Access for both newspapers on an iPad. It dawned on me that many people would follow me. They will read their newspaper without paper by doing it digitally – there will be thousands that read their news this way.

I’ll always be proud to say that I was the first reader to thumb through the pages of the our newspapers without using paper.

I hope you enjoy the new addition to our newspapers. All Access begins on Wednesday.

Art Smith is online manager for The Parkersburg News and Sentinel and The Marietta Times. He can be reached at asmith@newsandsentinel.com

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