New Roanoke Review website features bimonthly content, enhanced reader interaction
May 12, 2015
The Roanoke Review, a national poetry and short fiction journal founded at Roanoke College in 1967, has transitioned to an entirely online format.
Editor Dr. Paul Hanstedt, an English professor at Roanoke, spearheaded the transition in an effort to expand the Review's audience while maintaining its established reputation as a respected publication.
Since the transition to its new website, readership has already started to increase.
"Within the first 18 days of the website going live, we had over 1,000 unique visitors," said Managing Editor Nick Fritz '15.
Since then, the Review has had a steady flow of online traffic, averaging at least 20 website views a day.
Prior to this transition, the Review was printed annually as well as supplemented by a Word Press online forum. However, with the newest online format, the Review is updating its content bimonthly, publishing new content on the first and fifteenth of each month.
The published content varies from month-to-month, but a common theme among all of the updates is the push for reader interaction.
"We're really pushing interviews and podcasts, making the site interactive and encouraging people to explore," said Fritz.
In addition to podcasts, interviews, poetry and fiction, the Review also endorses local artists from Southwest Virginia.
The cover of the previously printed Review always featured a local artist's work, and that continues with the new online format. The website now features art galleries that spotlight sample collections from selected local artists.