About The Sabine Independent

Founded: Oct. 7, 1999

Purpose:  Alternative and progessive media source for the Sabine Parish area.

Coverage:  Primarily Sabine Parish, though we do feature some limited coverage of state news, as well as news and events in Natchitoches, DeSoto, Vernon and Red River parishes

Circulation:  As of Feb. 14, average of 266 hits per day, and growing.

Advertising:  Still non-profit site at this date.  This may change in the near future, though.

Staff:  "Editor & Publisher"- Shannon Clements. "Webmaster"- Marion Hall III.

Features:

LOCAL NEWS:   Professional coverage of area news.
LOCAL VIEWS:  Letters to the Editor (anyone can submit letters via e-mail, at editor@sabinenews.com, Poll Results, Library Reviews, Editor's Opinions, Etc.
FORUM:  Views and opinions of S. I. visitors.  Also, visitors can ask questions.   Anyone can participate.
LOCAL SPORTS:  Sports coverage submitted by area residents.   The S. I. does not have a sports writer, but welcomes assistance from parents and fans of local teams.
DAILY LINKS:  Up-to-date national and world news coverage, as well as science events, business news, technology news and much more.  Links to variety of sites, including daily comics, political and opinion, technology, business, etc.
MSN HOME:  For those that want to make The S. I. their home page, but still want to occasionally visit a well-designed and informative site that offers national and world news coverage as well as entertainment news and a variety of handy links.
CALENDAR:  The S. I.'s calendar is exclusive to this site, and gives the viewer a quick look at the month's events.  The viewer can click on a particular date to see details of events listed.  Also, a nice feature of the S. I. Calendar is that viewers can enter their own events.  To do this, just register (it's a simple process), and enter your event.
SEEK & SURF:  The S. I.'s Web Community allows viewers to use a search engine to find interesting sites.  This feature is interactive as well, and viewers can add their own web sites or favorite sites to the community.
LAKE DATA:  Thanks to the Sabine River Authority of Texas, The S. I. offers daily statistics on Toledo Bend Lake, including the lake level, rainfall, and releases.
OBITUARIES:  Obituaries and Death Notices provided by area funeral homes-- namely Warren Meadows Funeral Home.  These are posted in a timely manner, no longer than a few hours after we receive them.
SLIDE SHOW:  Photographs of area events, attractions, etc. displayed in attractive Java Applets.  We welcome ideas for Slide Shows, including school and youth events.
CLASSIFIEDS:  S. I. viewers can post Classifieds without charge.   We currently have two sections:  Anything Goes- Individual; and Anything Goes- Business.  We may charge for Business Classifieds in the future.
ARCHIVES:  The S. I. saves all news and views items.  They can be found under this section.
WEATHER:  By popular demand, we have provided a link to The Weather Channel's local weather reports.
E-MAIL:  The S. I. welcomes comments, suggestions, criticism, praise, and questions.  Send it on.  We try to respond to all e-mail promptly.
POLLS:  The S. I. will try to post polls regularly.  We hope to get to where we are posting at least two polls a week.  Anyone can vote in these polls, and there is a section for comments.  Also, anyone can view the results of the polls.
SEARCH:  The S. I. offers an internal search engine, located at the top right of our home page.  Viewers can type in key words, and will get a list of stories in which the key words can be found.  Also, the box at the top right offers an external search engine.  We are linked to Infoseek for this.
INTERNET SERVICE:  The S. I. has joined with United Technologies to offer a competitively-prices, fast, reliable Internet service.  We can sign up at any time, and connection is instantanneous.