So here’s the best part – putting your news and photos on the site is FREE! You can even list your business or club in the directories for free. And, there is a whole category of personal classified ads that are, you guessed it, free. Plus access to view all of this is free.

This is a new model for our newspaper group, which includes The Daily Astorian, Chinook Observer in Long Beach, Wash., East Oregonian in Pendleton, Blue Mountain Eagle in John Day, Wallowa County Chieftain in Enterprise and the Capital Press in Salem. Our small, community newspapers’ Web sites haven’t figured out a way to pay for the Web or the reporting that goes online. We are working to improve our online ad salesmanship and educate the business community about the need to drive traffic to their online doorsteps, but it’s not paying for our sites, yet. Until then, parts of those sites are available to subscribers only.

With Seaside-Sun.com, we hope the business community will see the value of being where Seaside congregates and want to have a presence on the site. We offer tile (button) ads, the large premium ad and upgrades to the business directory listings ranging from $20 a year to $300 a month. And we do offer classifieds for $5 for a week on the Sun site, or $1 a week if you place the same ad in The Daily Astorian. Our free classifieds are there as a service for residents to swap items, get rid of stuff that sells for $40 or less, etc. As long as the site pays for itself, then rest assured, the news will be free.