PBN re-designs website

By PBN Staff

(Updated, 4 p.m.)

PROVIDENCE – PBN.com sports a new look this morning. Featuring brighter visuals on the home page and quicker access to a broader range of news and information than before, PBN.com is designed to provide users with the most comprehensive window into what the business community in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts needs to know every day.

Some users had difficulty logging into the site early in the day in order to read “Premium Content,” i.e., stories that are visible only to Providence Business News subscribers. That problem was fixed midday.

However, if users tried to log in before the fix was implemented, they may still be having trouble getting access to Premium Content. In order to read those stories, the user must first log out of the website and then log back in, at which point the user’s existing username and password should be fully functional.

Any user with continuing problems accessing Premium Content should contact Joyce Rylander at production@pbn.com or (401) 680-4810.

Redesigned by PBN’s Web developer, East Providence-based Creative Circle Advertising Solutions, the new PBN.com includes, among other things:

• Rotating lead stories on the home page with bolder graphics.

• A rail down the left side of the home page that includes a changeable collection of items, ranging from the latest local and national news to an e-edition of PBN’s weekly print edition to links to PBN Events to a sign-up for PBN’s collection of e-newsletters, among other things.

• A section of the site dedicated to news, information and events away from the work environment, called “Out of Office,” which includes a dedicated space for PBN Events, as well as the daily calendar of events in the community and a brand-new feature, a searchable database of more than 400 restaurants across the state.

• A new way to look at the database of PBN stories, that uses broad categories of news – Big Picture, Products, Services, People and Perspectives – to help users reach story topics that interest them more easily. In addition, there is a new place that the editors of PBN will collect stories that have been the hot news lately, titled Hot Topics. The first Hot Topic is Pension Reform, where the most recent efforts to reform state employee pensions, examined in 31 stories, are collected.

Just as before, much of PBN.com is available to any user, but the richest collection of stories and information require a subscription, either print and digital, or just digital. Individual stories can be purchased as well. And follow the links on the home page to subscribe to the e-newsletters.