Opinion: Clark County Today celebrates 10th anniversary with redesign

Ken Vance
editor, Clark County Today

Ken Vance
Editor

These are special days for the members of the Clark County Today team. For 10 years, we have had the privilege of telling our community’s stories. And thanks to our loyal readers, we’re enthusiastic about the future of our community news website and our service to the Clark County community.

As we celebrate our 10th anniversary on Sept. 27, we want to say thank you — and give you something we’re genuinely excited to share: a rebuilt Clark County Today website. We’ve put care into how our reporting looks, how you discover it, and what you can do with it. Stories deserve room to come alive. Important issues deserve context. And a decade of local reporting deserves to be useful long after the day it was published. The new website is expected to go “live” on Sunday.

I will share plenty of details of our redesign later in this column. But first, allow me to be a little nostalgic and give credit for our success where credit is due.

First and foremost, Clark County Today continues to exist because of you, our loyal readers. If you weren’t interested in the content that we publish we wouldn’t have made it 10 years. And, if you didn’t engage with us in this endeavor through content contributions, such as letters to the editor and commentary on our stories and social media, we would not have been as successful as we have been.

Next, Clark County Today exists because of the vision and support of our Founder and Owner David Madore. I had the pleasure of meeting David during his tenure on the Clark County Board of Commissioners, now known as the Clark County Council. David and I discussed the role of the media in our community for a few years before we decided to stop talking about it and execute a plan. We wanted to present the news that wasn’t being reported. We wanted to represent area residents who weren’t being represented. And, we wanted to provide a platform for those who desired to have their voices heard, but were being denied the right to do so by other media outlets in our community. David has provided a life-changing experience for the Clark County Today team members, and I believe many of you in the community have been impacted in a positive way as well. I would love to have an “It’s A Wonderful Life’’ experience where Clarence the Angel would come down and show us what Clark County would be like if David had never gifted Clark County Today to our community. Maybe that is a bit dramatic, but I am extremely proud of the impact we have made in our community.

In our 10 years, we have had many reporters who have contributed to our success. A number of years ago, we settled with a staff of “The Core Four.’’ When we did that, I believe that’s when Clark County Today really found its lane, its purpose, and its identity.

Here’s a brief look at those who work with me to bring you Clark County Today:

Paul Valencia
Reporter
Podcast host

Paul Valencia, reporter/podcast host

Paul Valencia joined the Clark County Today team nine months after our initial launch. I had worked with Paul previously and I considered us friends, but Paul was such a successful and accomplished journalist, it never even dawned on me to approach him with an invitation to join our venture. A mutual friend offered the suggestion in our first year that I do so, and after a conversation or two – and a memorable meeting with the two of us and David Madore, Paul agreed to join our team.

When Paul came to us, his extensive experience in journalism was primarily as a sportswriter. At the time, he was the best sports reporter in the area, and he still is even though I don’t allow him much time to cover sports these days. He needles me all the time that I converted him into a hard news/political reporter. That is exactly what I did.

When John Ley resigned his position as a reporter with Clark County Today to run for the State House of Representatives, we had a glaring need for a lead news reporter. Our staff was just too small to dedicate Paul’s hours to covering area sports, even considering his considerable success and following in the community. Another reporter may have been reluctant, and even defiant, to make that transition. Paul may have had a few anxious moments as he did adjust, but his attitude was remarkable and his performance covering important news stories about news generated from the Clark County Council, Vancouver City Council, C-TRAN Board of Directors and other issues has allowed Clark County Today to reach new heights in recent years. He has truly transitioned from the best sports reporter in Clark County to the best news reporter in the area.

Heidi Case
Administrator

Heidi Case, administrator

Heidi Case is likely the least visible member of the Clark County Team. She is our administrator, filling many roles including finances, Human Resources and other administrative duties. Heidi grew up in the news industry. Her parents, Marvin and Anne Case, owned The Reflector Newspaper for almost 31 years. I won’t age Heidi, but I think she worked most of those years with her parents in nearly all areas of that operation.

In 2007, I was blessed with the opportunity to join The Reflector Newspaper as a reporter. It was amazing to see Heidi transform herself from one day to the next, filling so many roles there. On Tuesdays, she would put her “work clothes’’ on and help the delivery drivers unload the trucks that brought the 25,000-plus newspapers to our building and help the drivers load and head out on their routes. After a grueling 8 hours or so doing that heavily demanding physical work, she would change clothes and come work the front desk, enthusiastically greeting visitors and performing other duties.

When we formed Clark County Today, Heidi was one of my first contacts. I knew we would need her. She kept asking me what her role would be with this new venture. In the beginning, I didn’t have a very good answer to that question so she wasn’t an easy recruit. She was understandably reluctant to join a fledgling operation that had no guarantee of succeeding and no defined role for her. I just kept telling her that she would fill many roles, like she had at The Reflector, and that we desperately needed her. I finally wore her down and I am so grateful that I did.

I often tell David Madore how Heidi is absolutely foundational to the success of Clark County Today. She has a remarkable abundance of institutional knowledge about this industry. I’ve been a journalist for 39 years but I seek counsel regularly before making key decisions in our coverage and other issues. Heidi is often my first go-to for that counsel. Her character and integrity is as impeccable as anyone I have ever worked with.

Andi Schwartz
Webmaster
Graphic designer

Andi Schwartz, webmaster/graphic designer

I love to explain the irreplaceable importance of the role of Andi Schwartz at Clark County Today with this anecdote.

After David Madore made the decision to create Clark County Today, he and I reached an agreement on my employment. I arrived at US Digital for my first day of work in the middle of June 2016. David’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Berkompas met me and showed me to my office, which essentially had a chair, desk and computer. Tom wished me well and disappeared. I will never forget sitting there in my new office, all alone, with nothing but a vision and a directive to fulfill it. I instantly thought, “What in the heck do I do now?”

I began assembling a staff. Like Heidi, I worked with Andi at The Reflector. There, she was as valuable as any employee they had at that time. She was single-handedly designing that newspaper for publication each week. I thought there was no way I could lure her away from that job so initially I didn’t even try.

In the meantime, I attempted to start building the Clark County Today website. I was completely unqualified to do so. I got some help on the design elements and then hired a company from out of the area to actually build the site. After about a month of little apparent progress, and very poor communication, I was scared to death of fulfilling my promise to David to realize his vision.

It was then that I recruited a mutual friend to recruit Andi. He and I visited Andi at her home and I made the pitch. Much to my surprise and excitement, she later accepted my offer to join our team. Within a couple of weeks she suggested I cancel our agreement with the company to build our site because she could do it much better herself. And, oh boy, was she ever right!

I think it was about six weeks after Andi joined our team that we were able to launch Clark County Today. She is virtually solely responsible for that, as well as keeping it functioning on a daily basis. I run out of adjectives to describe the enormity of Andi’s talents and abilities. Often, I just simply state that she is a “Rock Star!’’

I think you will agree with me on the validity of that moniker when you get a glimpse of her redesign of our site.

Clark County Today redesign

I loved the previous presentation of our website, but after 10 years it was obviously time for a fresh makeover. And, we needed to improve the functionality of the website, making it easier for our users to navigate.

I believe strongly that this new site does just that, providing our readers with more ways to read, listen, explore, and take part. Here’s a look at some of the new features:

• Catch Up — Have a few minutes? Get a briefing on recent stories, important updates, and upcoming deadlines. See what’s new since your last visit or catch up on the past several days.
• Local — Go straight to news from the communities you care about. Choose where you live, work, or spend time and find coverage close to home.
• Storylines — Get the whole story, not just the latest development. Follow connected coverage from its beginnings to where it stands today, and save the storylines you want to keep following.
• CCT Radar — Find out what’s ahead. Explore community events, public meetings, and important deadlines, with related reporting to help you understand the issues before you attend.
• Ask CCT — Ask a question and explore answers drawn from more than 19,000 published stories. Links to the original reporting let you dig deeper and see the sources for yourself.
• Browse the Archive — Take a fresh look at 10 years of Clark County history. Search by keyword, topic, community, or date to revisit a favorite story or research something that matters to you.
• Listen to CCT — Take us along on your commute, your walk, or your next project. Listen through the website, build an audio queue, or find CCT on Spotify and other popular podcast platforms.
• High School Sports — Follow the teams, athletes, and moments that bring our community together, with dedicated sports coverage. There is even going to be a dedicated high school football section on the homepage.
• Closures & Alerts — Keep essential information within reach, including school closures, delays, weather notices, and emergency updates from FlashAlert.
• Your CCT — Keep your followed storylines and comment history together in one place. An optional account uses a simple emailed sign-in link, with no password to remember. Reading and guest commenting remain available without an account.
• Community Conversation — Join a discussion, share your perspective, and weigh in through community polls. We want to hear from the people we’re writing for.
• CCT Newsletter — Let us bring the news to you, with local reporting delivered to your inbox.

On the homepage, you’ll find these pieces alongside the day’s leading stories, local sports, audio, upcoming events, and recent reader discussions. You can stop in for a quick update or settle in with a story that catches your attention — and easily find more reporting connected to it.

This is how we want to celebrate our first 10 years: by making the next chapter even better for our readers.

We’re proud of the reporting we’ve built, grateful for the relationships we’ve formed, and excited about the stories still ahead. Thank you for reading, for caring about Clark County, and for supporting us along the way.

We love what we do. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to keep doing it.