Newsandsentinel.com readers come from around the world. (Graphic Illustration)

PARKERSBURG – There was a time when if you wanted to read a newspaper you needed to be near enough to their offices to have it delivered to your home.

Newspapers, including The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, deliver printed newspapers every day. Because of the internet there is a good chance you are not reading this story printed on paper by a high-speed press.

Sharing a common geographic location is no longer a requirement to read the news in a timely fashion. The production of the digital version of the newspaper occurs at the same time as the print edition. As pages are sent to be printed, copies are also delivered to a server that a few hours later will construct a digital version of the newspaper. When articles are uploaded to our website, newsandsentinel.com, they are sent to enhance the digital copy of the printed newspaper.

While Parkersburg sleeps, the printed copy comes off the press and is taken to area post offices to be delivered the same day to area readers.

At 5 a.m., the All-Access edition, an exact digital copy of the printed newspaper is made available to subscribers. The website, which has 188,000 stories on it, is also updated at this time.

The fact that you can sit at your kitchen table and read the news about your community shortly after it has happened is why newspapers have been called the “daily miracle.” The fact that you can do that from any place in the world is remarkable.

The News and Sentinel first had a functional website in 2001. As the internet matured, so did the site, going through several revisions and updates as technology made more things possible and other things obsolete.

An e-edition was added a few years ago to give readers the option of enjoying an electronic version of the printed newspaper, which made everything available in the printed newspaper available on a computer, tablet or smart phone to any subscriber regardless of where they are. It’s available before the sun comes up in Parkersburg. It might be the middle of the day or the middle of the night where the reader is; it doesn’t matter as long as they have internet access

The digital edition is very popular with our subscribers who travel a lot, as well as those that fly south for the winter.

Readers from the area read about the harsh winter this year, even those in Florida where harsh weather meant it dropped below 50.

During a typical month the majority of our traffic comes where you would think – the Mid-Ohio Valley. Some of it though will come from the far reaches of the world when someone, someplace, seeks out information that is only available on our site.

An obituary for instance could be read by someone on Quincy Street, or in Quincy, Mass. A sports story by someone in south Parkersburg, or by someone in South Africa.

There are few countries in the world where someone doesn’t drop by to read a story or two in any given month.

The online version is a great option for local people, too. It allows you to access the newspaper sooner than the mail arrival time.

A four-year archive, the ability to make the type larger, the ability of having stories read to you and the ability to download entire editions are just some features of the e-edition.

The printed newpapers, the e-edition and the website give subscribers options that help them stay informed regardless of where they are.

Art Smith can be reached at asmith@newsandsentinel.com