The Catholic Spirit’s website and social media coordinator, Michael Pytleski, spent nearly two years — amid breaking news, special projects and COVID-19 adjustments to the workplace — re-imagining The Catholic Spirit website.
The result has arrived.
Pytleski sat down with Editor-in-Chief Joe Ruff to discuss some of the benefits of the new site:
Q) Michael, how will changes to the website improve the experience for readers?
A) The website displays in a much more friendly way on phones and tablets. It is easier to navigate. All the content is readily available from the homepage. The stories are organized in a clearer fashion, with an emphasis on the beautiful and compelling photos we’ve always had. Readability is improved with intentional use of white space and eye-pleasing fonts.
Q) What did you have to do to make this happen?
A) It was really a matter of putting a new face on the website. We wanted to preserve the content we had and the same type of content we will have going forward, but present it in a more friendly, fresh way. Something that meets the expectations of today’s online newspaper reader. The template used is very flexible and we will be able to keep up with new trends in the online publishing world so that we can continually meet those expectations.
Q) There are many website development companies. Why did you take this task on yourself?
A) Designing a website is something that I’ve wanted to do for some time. There were aspects of the former website that I always wanted to improve on over the years and I’ve had specific ideas that I wanted to implement myself. Development companies also come with costs that I wanted to avoid as a matter of prudent stewardship of our resources.
Q) What if something on the site is not working well?
A) Now if something happens that needs to be fixed, I know exactly how the whole thing was put together from start to finish and will be able to address it quickly.
Q) How did you make this happen as you met other responsibilities at work?
A) Doing it in-house required carving out time in my schedule and leaning on other Catholic Spirit team members to take up slack from time to time. The whole project took almost two years, which was much longer than I had anticipated.
Q) Who can readers reach if they have questions or suggestions about the new site?
A) I am available at spiritwebmaster@archspm.org for any questions.
