Blackmountainnews.com gets a dazzling facelift

It's a brave, new world at blackmountainnews.com.

We've completely redone our website in a way that makes it more informative and much easier to use. Working with Gannett designers over the course of a couple of months, we've come up with a snappy, fun site that is equally at home on your desktop, tablet and (for the first time ever) your cell phone. We went live with it on Tuesday.

Picture-driven, the site gives you a taste of what you'll read once you click on the image.

You'll be able to browse the stories much more quickly without having to read a lot of headline.

We think you'll like our redesign for several reasons. For starters, we'll be able to post breaking news a lot faster.

For another, the site has far more news. In addition to news of the Swannanoa Valley, you'll find a world of news and videos curated by USA Today (the tab is beneath The Black Mountain News masthead up top).

Listings on the left include our fabulous and informative Dining Guide (listing great restaurants in the Valley) and Travel Guide (with suggestions of places to go and things to do with your out-of-town guests).

Also on the left-hand bar highlighted in red (the same red that marks Black Mountain as the Little Town That Rocks) is a link to The Asheville Citizen-Times, with its wealth of news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle and business news.

One of the features we're most excited about is the Share Your News link in the left-hand bar. Clicking that opens an email addressed to The Black Mountain News that will help us get your news in the newspaper, both online and in print. Weddings, anniversaries, milestones of all sort, as well as news tips, story ideas and article submissions are much easier to send to us now.

You'll also find links to find jobs, cars, homes and apartments, as well as a shopping link that will let you print coupons and find sales.

The website enables The Black Mountain News to post videos and photo galleries, our own and the ones you shoot (send them - or a link to them - to us via the Share Your News link).

At the bottom of the page are links to legal classifieds, our advertising rates, and how to get in touch with each of us here. Here you'll be able to subscribe to the paper and/or The Asheville Citizen-Times.

Combined with our Facebook and Twitter pages, we intend for our newly redesigned website to be part of the community discussion about what's happening in the Valley.