Well, another academic year is behind us. I was fortunate to once again be on the field at Stengel along with Mary O’Keefe and Leonard Coutin to photograph the graduating class of Crescenta Valley High School. As I mentioned last week, it was especially gratifying to witness the graduation ceremony as my youngest son was part of the class.

But CVHS was not the only school bidding farewell to its graduates. Clark Magnet High School also held its graduation ceremony last Thursday evening (our Maddy Pumilia was there to capture the festivities) and over at Rosemont, Cynthia Livingston was sending off her first class as principal of the middle school.

My first son graduated from CVHS in 2000 and I couldn’t help but notice the similarities and differences between the two occasions. The similarity of course was the size of the classes – both were huge! And the girls’ shoes were a big deal, too. It’s always fun watching the girls teeter along the baseball field in their high heels and grad gowns.

But while in 2000 when the kids were bored they were looking around at each other, the crowds and the birds flying overhead, now you could find them texting away. Not a lot of them – I think they may have been instructed to leave their devices at home – but a few could be seen tapping away on mini-keyboards, letting whoever know what was going on.

So it is that even in the traditional, technology can be found.

Take for example this newspaper. We had originally planned on launching the Crescenta Valley Weekly in its current form the first week in September 2009. But in response to the Station Fire, we actually had a pre-launch of sorts with the email “blast zone” that we established to let folks in the Crescenta Valley know how the fire was advancing, which roads were blocked, etc. These blasts – which we still send out – were provided to people who gave us their email addresses because they wanted hyper-local information on how the fire was affecting their neighborhood. Since its launch, hundreds of people have signed up for this free service and now get periodic “blasts” when news happens that can’t wait until Thursday mornings when the paper hits the street. (If you’re interested in getting in the blast zone, send an email to robin@cvweekly.com and write “add me to the blast zone”).

But we have found that even in the less than two years that we’ve been around we need to keep abreast of the advances in technology. Speaking as the owner of a small business that is competing with larger, much better funded companies, this is not an easy undertaking. But we’ve held our own.

We’ve had a website since day one. Designed and hosted by local business Caspian Services, our website – www.cvweekly.com – has garnered much praise and is visited by thousands every week.

At the beginning of the year we introduced QR (Quick Response) codes in the body of some of our stories and in some of our advertising. These codes, when scanned by Smart Phones, whisks the reader to whatever website is embedded in the code. Whether it be an advertiser or the CV Weekly website where more story information, including video, can be found, the QR codes have caught the attention of our readers and advertisers.

In the last couple of weeks, we have launched our own application for eReaders. For owners of the Kindle, Nook and other devices, now the paper in its entirety can be downloaded onto the reader and taken wherever you go – pretty snazzy. To learn how, visit www.cvweekly.com and you’ll find instructions.

Thanks to Charly Shelton, our resident “tech wizard” who has implemented this technology and is always on the look out for new and exciting ways to bring the CV Weekly to our readers.

Robin Goldsworthy is the publisher of the Crescenta
Valley Weekly. She can be
reached at robin@cvweekly.com
or (818) 248-2740.

  JUNE 23, News, robin goldsworthy