Letter From the Editor: New Easy Sign-Up for Free Trial, and a More Reader-Friendly Homepage

Dear Reader:

We’ve made some recent changes to the look and feel of The Rambler in the spirit of greater reader accessibility.

Foremost, we are pleased to debut a three-week free trial, to which anyone can sign up with their name and email address. Previously, our two-week trial required folks to enter their credit card information before signing up, which proved a barrier.

The change required some technological upgrades and wherewithal, so we appreciate the patience of people who wanted to browse the publication before committing.

We have seen significant interest in The Rambler since we soft-launched this feature a couple weeks ago. We now have more than 1,000 subscribers, 225 of whom are paying. We are well on our way toward a goal of 400 paying subscribers within our first year of operating.

Thanks to each and every one of our readers for their support!

Additionally, we’ve refreshed our homepage to make it easier for readers new and old to find previously published stories and newsletters.

You’ll find a “News” tab on the main menu’s left side that contains a drop-down with story categories. We have archived stories into these “macro” categories, from “Business and Economy” to “Investigations,” “Literature” through “Social Issues” broadly. Under these sections, we have approximated where best a given story should live. Stories continue to include a more specific tag — such as “LGBTQ” or “Homelessness” under Social Issues — within these broader subject areas.

This is also where you can find our Newsletter Archives, as well as the category Newsroom, where letters from the editor like this one will live.

Finally, existing subscribers will now notice a little fellow in the bottom right corner of the homepage (if you're signed in) or an envelope encouraging you to sign up, if you're not logged in already. Through this tool, you should be able to access your account information and change or update it as necessary, including your credit card information, email address or subscription level.

For brand new readers, you will see a free-trial bar at the top of the homepage, in addition to the sign-up envelope at the bottom right, which also includes options to subscribe at varying levels.

We hope these updates allow for greater ease of use and for more readers to become introduced to our offerings of independent local journalism and literature. If you ever run into issues, or have ideas for more features, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly.

Sincerely yours,

Henri Gendreau

Editor-in-Chief
The Roanoke Rambler
Local | Investigative | Literary
editor@roanokerambler.com