Newport launches redesigned city website with expanded accessibility and online services

The Newport City Council was briefed Jan. 5 on the city's redesigned website, launched Jan. 2, that communications staff said will centralize news, provide language translation for 95 languages, and add online service forms to reduce in-person visits.

John Fuller, communications staff for the City of Newport, said the site includes a new set of logos and brand guidelines, accessibility tools and an alert box for urgent items. "One of the first things you'll notice when you come to our page is this alert box right here," Fuller said, describing how the site will use the feature for breaking news or events.

Fuller demonstrated the site's prominent search box and said the site indexes pages but that legacy links from the old site will remain in search results until they recirculate. He also described new online forms, including a utility account signup and public records request, and the ability to attach photos to public works reports. "We already had some forms come in today," he said.

Fuller said the site includes department subpages—for police, library and parks—and noted a plan to train department staff to update pages starting in February. He told councilors the site will display calendar events, allow linking to live agendas, and include an eventual transparency tool tied to budget and year-end review documents.

Councilors asked about archival migration and whether committee meeting records back to 2016 would be available; Fuller said the site frames content from the Granicus system and displays whatever archives Granicus contains. Staff did not report any formal motion tied to the website presentation.

Next steps: staff will continue training departments and refine links to agendas and event listings.