By CATERINA GUINTA
Staff Intern

MEDINA — From the kitchen table to the computer screen, The Gazette is offering readers more options.

The full newspaper is now available online. For 30 days from today, anyone can access The Gazette online for free. The Web site has a unique design where readers can view the paper in a PDF format and click on the article they want to read. The article then comes up on the right side of the screen in a readable form.

“It makes the actual content of the paper, the full content, clickable so that you get the whole paper rather than the traditional Web site where we’re offering a more limited amount of stories,” Gazette Publisher George D. Hudnutt said.

The Gazette site was developed with Tecnavia, a newspaper specific Web site vendor.

“They (Tecnavia) developed the program we are currently using to display our newspaper pages for newspaper and education purposes,” Hudnutt said. “They process the pages in what you might call a super PDF where all of the content is searchable.”

This means readers can type names, dates and places in the search line to see if anything interests them in that day’s paper.

“It’s so much easier to find the content you want,” Hudnutt said.

After 30 days, all Gazette subscribers will continue to get the online edition for free as part of their subscription.

“It will be a value added whenever you’re on vacation; or even if you were to get missed (home delivery), you could just go right online and get the paper,” Hudnutt said. “There’s a lot of options for the subscribers coming up in the future.”

For nonsubscribers, the online edition offers a wallet program where readers can put in money using their credit cards and access the Web site on the days they wish. For example, to read the newspaper online for two weeks would cost $4.20 — 35 cents per issue, the same as the newsstand price.

The online edition also offers more options for Gazette advertisers, Hudnutt said. He explained the countywide Tuesday edition offers a bigger marketplace for advertisers and the online edition offers even more.

“This new product … on the Web will offer the universe to our advertisers,” Hudnutt said. “Anyone, anywhere, can access their ad over the Internet.”

He said any Web address the advertiser decided to add would be clickable. For example, if an advertiser wanted to put map directions to his business in the ad, a user could click that link and directions would pop up.

“It’s something newer that we haven’t seen before,” Hudnutt said. “It seems to be working out really well.”

If the site gets a lot of attention, The Gazette might add a Sunday edition, which would be available online only, Hudnutt said.

The new Web site is available by going to the Gazette’s conventional Web site, wp2.medina-gazette.com, and clicking on the Medina Gazette eEdition button in the top left-hand corner, or medinagazette.oh.newsmemory.com.

Guinta may be reached at 330-721-4046 or cguinta@ohio.net.