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Margaret Hair

Margaret Hair's column appears Fridays in the 4 Points arts and entertainment section in the Steamboat Today. Contact her at 871-4204 or e-mail mhair@steamboatpilot.com.

Steamboat Springs — As part of an effort to give our readers more frequent, relevant and up-to-date news about the art, music, dance, theater, nightlife and more in the Yampa Valley, the Steamboat Pilot & Today will be moving away from the weekly arts section format we have used for years.

With a continued presence in the Friday paper, much of what is found in 4 Points now will move online, where art and music media across the country has been going for the past 10 years or so.

There are all kinds of perks to the shift: readers will be able to check www.exploresteamboat.com for an all-inclusive calendar of arts and entertainment events; that calendar will be updated daily and has been posted on Explore for about a week. Also on that site are movie times for the week, frequently updated happy hour listings, and all the articles you'll find in this week's 4 Points.

As we move into the busy summer arts season, I'm looking forward to using Explore as a platform to post band interviews with song clips and MySpace links attached, CD reviews of recent releases, concert coverage from reviews to video clips, photo galleries from happenings around town and visual art events - the space is unlimited, and so are potential online features.

A blog format could take the place of this column and allow for bits of arts and entertainment news, links to new bands, short movie reviews, and other frequent, easily digested pieces of information. It's a 180-degree turn from the once-a-week model we offer now, and it's going to allow more freedom for what we cover and how we cover it.

We hope these changes will allow for more dynamic coverage of our arts and entertainment offerings and will give us a chance to break out of the weekly cycle and cover more stories, more often.

Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts by giving me a call at 871-4204 or by e-mailing me at mhair@steamboatpilot.com. The exact details of what arts and entertainment coverage will look like in print editions of the Steamboat Today are still in the works. For now, bookmark Explore Steamboat on your Web browsers, and check it often for event announcements, previews and coverage; artist features and interviews; and daily updates on all things arts and entertainment.