Beside its published newspaper on paper, Aztag started to publish its newspaper on the web starting from Nov. 26, 2002, according to the archives on WayBackMachine.
From the beginning of the launch of their website, it has been largely accessed and read by large amount of internet users and to this day more than 1 million people have visited the site (based on Aztag's counter), by local Lebanese Armenians, but mostly from outside Lebanon.
The initial design has not changed since the beginning of the launch, but it has kept the consistency of renewing the website everyday before 8:30 am (Beirut timing).
The website, compared to the many other local and foreign news websites, needs renovation and change. The "About Us" section needs to work, if you want to know about the Editorial team. Moreover, the fonts used are ASCII fonts, that are not readable or identified by the search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN. So, if you wanted to search for an article about "Հայաստան", you will not find any article from Aztag.
As you may know, Google has a search engine in Armenian, and Windows XP has language settings in both Armenian Western and Armenian Eastern. From both these services and opportunities, Aztag does not benefit.
If Aztag starts to benefit, it will become the first Armenian newspaper online in the diaspora, and with this success will follow the pouring of the advertisements, which are many, one of which is the well know Google adsense.
Another less effective, yet important aspect of Aztag's website is its design and most of all its background, which is the color of the sand with thin black lines, which sometimes creates readability problems.
For more clarity, and in order to have the official opinion of Aztag, we contacted the Aztag offices, and came back with this short interview with Vahram Emiyan, one of the editors of Aztag.
Chanitz- Are all the pages that are publised on paper, also published on your website?
Aztag- All the pages that are published in our newspaper are also posted on our website.
Chanitz- Lately, we have seen the launch of Agos newspaper online, which a reader needs to subscribe with a fee. Recently, we see that they are asking more Armenians to subscribe, so that they will afford to keep their website. Have you thought about a similar project? Would it succeed here in Lebanon? If not, why?
Aztag- Our website is without subscription. We haven’t thought about asking our readers to subscribe.
Chanitz- Do you intend to keep the website free of charge? If yes, why?
Aztag- Our intention is to keep our website free of charge and in order to achieve that goal we rely on donations by our generous benefactors.
Chanitz- If someone searches for an article in Armenian on Google, the user will not be able to find the articles of Aztag. Have you thought of ways to make your newspaper found on Google?
Aztag- For now it is not possible to find Armenian articles which are published in Aztag by searching on Google, but it’s something we will be working on.
Chanitz- The website of Annahar is in Arabic and free. They have many advertisements on their website too. What are the reasons for not seeing ads on your website?
Aztag- We will be posting ads from around the world. That is a project we are working on.
Chanitz- What future plans do you have for the Aztag website?
Aztag- Soon the Aztag website will have a new look.
From the beginning of the launch of their website, it has been largely accessed and read by large amount of internet users and to this day more than 1 million people have visited the site (based on Aztag's counter), by local Lebanese Armenians, but mostly from outside Lebanon.
The initial design has not changed since the beginning of the launch, but it has kept the consistency of renewing the website everyday before 8:30 am (Beirut timing).
The website, compared to the many other local and foreign news websites, needs renovation and change. The "About Us" section needs to work, if you want to know about the Editorial team. Moreover, the fonts used are ASCII fonts, that are not readable or identified by the search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN. So, if you wanted to search for an article about "Հայաստան", you will not find any article from Aztag.
As you may know, Google has a search engine in Armenian, and Windows XP has language settings in both Armenian Western and Armenian Eastern. From both these services and opportunities, Aztag does not benefit.
If Aztag starts to benefit, it will become the first Armenian newspaper online in the diaspora, and with this success will follow the pouring of the advertisements, which are many, one of which is the well know Google adsense.
Another less effective, yet important aspect of Aztag's website is its design and most of all its background, which is the color of the sand with thin black lines, which sometimes creates readability problems.
For more clarity, and in order to have the official opinion of Aztag, we contacted the Aztag offices, and came back with this short interview with Vahram Emiyan, one of the editors of Aztag.Chanitz- Are all the pages that are publised on paper, also published on your website?
Aztag- All the pages that are published in our newspaper are also posted on our website.
Chanitz- Lately, we have seen the launch of Agos newspaper online, which a reader needs to subscribe with a fee. Recently, we see that they are asking more Armenians to subscribe, so that they will afford to keep their website. Have you thought about a similar project? Would it succeed here in Lebanon? If not, why?
Aztag- Our website is without subscription. We haven’t thought about asking our readers to subscribe.
Chanitz- Do you intend to keep the website free of charge? If yes, why?
Aztag- Our intention is to keep our website free of charge and in order to achieve that goal we rely on donations by our generous benefactors.
Chanitz- If someone searches for an article in Armenian on Google, the user will not be able to find the articles of Aztag. Have you thought of ways to make your newspaper found on Google?
Aztag- For now it is not possible to find Armenian articles which are published in Aztag by searching on Google, but it’s something we will be working on.
Chanitz- The website of Annahar is in Arabic and free. They have many advertisements on their website too. What are the reasons for not seeing ads on your website?
Aztag- We will be posting ads from around the world. That is a project we are working on.
Chanitz- What future plans do you have for the Aztag website?
Aztag- Soon the Aztag website will have a new look.