The Kokomo Lantern enters its second year with plenty of successes to build upon and a new way for readers to access and submit content. Today, the Lantern’s dedicated website – www.kokomolantern.com – is live and ready for use.
In addition to many of the features readers have come to expect and enjoy, the website sports new options which will allow for a greater level of interaction with the community. Sections for news, sports, and features have been added for better navigation than what is provided at the Lantern’s current home of Substack. And three additional features have been added, with the potential for more as the need arises.
First and foremost among the new features at www.kokomolantern.com is a reader submission section where the community may submit letters to the editor, announcements of upcoming events, and even articles or columns of their own. The Kokomo Lantern retains the right to decide what content goes live once submitted and will edit pieces for grammar and to filter out inappropriate content.
Those with questions about submitting content should contact the Lantern by emailing kokomolantern@gmail.com.
The second feature is a Community Calendar section. The Lantern will populate the calendar with content from its weekly “What’s Happening This Week?” post, which appears each Sunday morning on Substack. And reader-submitted events will be added as they are received and reviewed.
The third feature is just for fun. Those who follow Lantern publisher Patrick Munsey on social media may be aware of his fondness for Wordle, the popular word guessing game. The Kokomo Lantern has its own version of the game – KWORDLE – which can be played and replayed as the player sees fit; not just once a day.
“We relied on Substack to launch the Kokomo Lantern because of its ease of use and quick set-up, but it always has been our hope to have our own home online,” said Munsey. “While we still will use the Substack site as our primary publishing portal, www.kokomolantern.com is our future.
“We’re still working out a few of the bugs, and the full archive of past articles is still only available on Substack. But it won’t be long before our website will become the full-time home for the Kokomo Lantern.”
The Lantern didn’t stop with a website. Final testing is taking place on a mobile app as well. An announcement will follow once the app is complete and receives approval from the Apple and Android app stores for release.
A final new development that Substack subscribers will notice starting today is the inclusion of vital records to the content the Lantern provides. The feature will start with obituaries, and additional records will be added based upon reader feedback.
“We’re open to adding many of the vital records once provided by the Kokomo Perspective, with one exception,” said Munsey. “The Kokomo Lantern will not include mugshots with arrest records. I know it was a wildly popular feature in the Perspective, but I also am aware of the ethical difficulties surrounding the content.
“There are other publishers online producing this content, and the Howard County Sheriff’s Department publishes the mugshots as well. There is little need for the Lantern to duplicate those efforts.”
If there are vital records – or any other features -- you would like to see added to the Kokomo Lantern’s offerings, drop us a line at kokomolantern@gmail.com.
Congratulations Patrick for your continued growth as a pioneering publisher and new age journalist.
Thank you Patrick. I love this website.