Airtides transitions to the Web Published June 8, 2007 By Senior Airman Danielle Johnson 305th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs MCGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. -- The Airtides staff will publish its last issue of the paper and complete the transition to a fully Web-based publication June 29. The transition is the result of a new Air Force-wide Public Affairs directive designed to eliminate the extensive time and manpower requirements of the traditional newspaper while better meeting the needs of the base populace. A Web-based publication has an unlimited amount of editorial space, allowing the Airtides staff to better meet the needs of units and individuals requesting coverage of events and/or personnel. With the traditional newspaper, editorial space is limited by the amount of ads sold by the Airtides publisher. Each week, the Airtides staff spends countless hours preparing articles, pictures and other content for publication in the paper. Once the content is ready, it is then designed into the layout provided by the publisher. Every individual item in the paper -- each article, headline, photo and even every single line or period -- must be carefully fit into place, like putting together a puzzle when there is no picture of the final product to refer to for guidance. With such limitations, the editor is often forced to cut out words, sentences and even whole articles. "I always feel horrible when I can't publish an article," said Amn. Rebekah Phy, Airtides editor. "When people work so hard to write about the things their units are doing, they deserve to have that work published. This includes public affairs staff, too. I can't even count the number of articles I've written and photos I've taken that haven't made it into the newspaper simply because there wasn't enough space." While the public affairs staff will still be limited on the manpower available to write articles and cover events, there is no limit to the amount of content that can be posted to the Web site, thereby allowing public affairs staff to publish all articles and photos meeting content and propriety standards that are submitted by base personnel. The Web-based publication will not only provide readers with more news than before, it will also give it to them much sooner. "You won't have to wait for Friday to get your news," said Senior Airman Rachel Martinez, 305th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs specialist. "Often times, we are unable to cover events the same week they take place, because all newspaper content must be sent to the publisher early in the week. With the Web, we can potentially cover an event in the morning, write the article, edit it and post it on the site as early as close of business that same day." Readers also don't need to wait for July to get news on the Web. The Airtides staff is currently posting all articles from the newspaper to the Web site at http://public.mcguire.amc.af.mil. For more information or to submit an article or story idea for publication, e-mail the Airtides staff at airtides@mcguire.af.mil.