A new era in local media starts today with the official launch of the Statesboro Herald's updated website.

The innovative media platform allows for more stories, photographs and information than ever before available — and all on a site that is designed to be easily used on cellphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers.

"The newly designed website is much more user friendly and will allow us to do things we have not been able to do in the past," said Jim Healy, operations manager and editor for the Herald. "It's going to be a whole new experience for our audience, especially those who prefer to access us on a mobile device."

All content on the site will be free for the next week so readers can check out the new statesboroherald.com. After that, if you are a subscriber, your account will roll over to the new site. If you are not a subscriber, some great introductory rates will be offered to help convince you to become a subscriber.

Also, some subscribers may need to reset their usernames. If you receive a prompt to reset, the process is straightforward.

"I particularly want to draw your attention to our E-Edition that offers a page-by-page replication of the Statesboro Herald newspaper every day," Healy said. "On the previous statesboroherald.com, the E-Edition was a series of PDF documents that you had to click on one at a time to read the paper in that format."

On the new statesboroherald.com, click on the E-Edition link at the top of the home page. The entire day's paper will be in a single turn-the-page document. Readers can click on individual stories and read them in their entirety without going to another page. Also, readers can click on individual ads and enlarge them easily.

Visitors to the site will find a crisper, cleaner design that loads faster than the previous site. They will also find a continuous scroll of stories on the homepage that improves the reading experience.

"We are often asked why we expect users of our website to subscribe for reading our content," Healy said. "We are a private business and cannot afford to give away the work of our journalists and other professionals for free. Reporting on and delivering the news is an expensive process. I can say with the utmost confidence that statesboroherald.com will contain the most local news, sports, entertainment and lifestyles content about Statesboro and Bulloch County you can read anywhere."

The site officially went live Tuesday, and the old platform is no longer available.