No.  The Richmond Times-Dispatch is still owned by Media General, as are we.  Over the years, our website has grown to include things you can’t find in the printed version of the paper, like video, audio, and interactivity.  We also present a lot of online-only feature stories and searchable directories.  Because we are not just “the paper online” anymore, we have started promoting ourselves as what we are…a web destination bringing the best community, entertainment, and news information to the Richmond area.

We still have all of the Richmond Times-Dispatch news content we had before, but we aren’t limited to the constraints of a newspaper.  For those who just want to read the paper online, we offer it in its original format.  Click on the RTD link above and then click on the front page.

Thanks for your continued feedback!  Let me know if there’s anything else I can answer for you or help you find.

Ms. Woodard - I am even more discouraged now. 

1) Was inRich already in existence as a Richmond community site and the RTD site was integrated into it?  If so, then I would rephrase my comments about being pushed off into a corner to a comment about being gobbled up. 

2) Where is the sprucing up? 

3) How can you say that people didn’t expect to find such things in a newspaper website?  Right now, for example, there is a video on the homepage of the Washington Post and the New York Times has its own Video tab at the top of the page. 

With all due respect.  - Ken

Thanks for your note.  I appreciate your concerns and your feedback.

The RTD site hasn’t been pushed off into the corner; it has been integrated into a larger community site.  You can find RTD content in almost every section of the new site, in addition to the RTD-specific page.

The design was long-overdue for sprucing up, as it had remained virtually unchanged for years.  We had also included those other things into the previous design, but people didn’t know they were there because they didn’t expect to find such things in a “newspaper website.“  The fact that we are run independently of the newspaper also began to get confusing, so we felt it was an appropriate time to redesign and promote ourselves independently of the newspaper. 

I’m sorry you don’t like our name.  The only thing I can offer there is that you can continue to type in TimesDispatch.com if you prefer.

Constraints of a newspaper?  Did I read that right?  I’ve designed enough websites to know what a template looks like.  All the RTD needed to do was incorporate those ‘things’ you mention like media and interactivity into its existing design, not be replaced by a self-promoted ‘web destination’ with an iGeneric name.  The RTD site could have been enhanced, not shoved into a corner as a separate link, seemingly for the less progressive.  I suggest losing the inRich moniker ... it is a discourteous truncation of our city’s historic name.

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