The redesign of Mediamouse.org is now complete. While many of you have no doubt seen it over the past week and a half, we have been busy troubleshooting bugs, making updates, and making sure that everything works before making it official.

While the design has been changed, the majority of the changes to the site were made to make it easier to use and, ideally, more useful for those seeking independent news and working for a better world. One of the ways we have done this is increasing the visibility of articles on the homepage, making it so that items from the news analysis, audio and video, book review, and commentary sections display on the homepage. Additionally, for most sections we have added the capacity to search and browse the site by keywords or "tags." We have also setup a "related entries" feature that will make it easier to find additional news stories relating to an article.

Some long overdue features have been added as well, including the capacity to generate print-friendly pages (complete with footnotes for links if you are using Mozilla FireFox or Safari) and bookmarklets for sharing stories on popular news sites. Moreover, after years of hesitation, we have also enabled comments and encourage folks to use them to give feedback, to expand on ideas raised in articles or to engage in debate about the topics covered (a good place to start might be giving feedback on the redesign). Along with enabling comments on this site, we are also going to do a better job of participating in the "blogosphere" as a means of both contributing to larger progressive/left debate and expanding the reach of this site. In particular, we will be focusing on the Michigan blog "community."

In the coming months, we will be making more changes, including further work on the Dissecting the Local News section to allow for us to post video clips and add additional features making it easier to hold the local media accountable, an improved and expanded Progressive Directory, and a project that will give us a physical space from which we will be able to work and provide public access to a wealth of independent books, videos, and other media. We will also be working to expand our reach by continuing to promote the site online, and more importantly, working to promote the site "offline" while creating more printed materials that can be distributed to those who do not have access to computers.

Since our last redesign in January of 2006, both our coverage and our traffic have continued to grow. In the past year, we have undertaken several important projects including a database that explores "The Far Right in West Michigan" (covering everything from the philanthropy of Grand Rapids' wealthy DeVos family to local racist groups) and a partnership that has us hosting the website of the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID) (which has allowed us to expand our involvement in media reform work). At the same time, we recognize that there is always a need for improvement, and that like much of the independent media movement in the United States, we need to continue to work to expand beyond covering protests and reacting to those in power by producing original material that is not available elsewhere. Similarly, we need to make stronger efforts to cover issues and news affecting people of color, the LGBT community, and women, while expanding the ways in which we act in solidarity with other struggles.

Lastly, while we will be doing a formal fundraiser later this year, we wanted to remind people that Mediamouse.org is entirely reader-funded and receives no support from ad revenue, foundations, or corporations. Donations allow us to continue expanding and offering unique reporting and content that is unavailable elsewhere in Grand Rapids and West Michigan.