Posted by Mike Orren on Contests

One of the things I love about the InterWebs is that they allow you to be more nimble than you could be back in the 20th Century world of stone tablets, papyrus and sheep's blood. Here's a great case in point:

A couple weeks ago we announced that our redesigned site and the ensuing network would be called WiredLocal. As one would expect with such a change, reaction was mixed. Some folks brought up the issue of confusion with Wired magazine -- and while we hadn't heard from them on it, we knew that could just turn into a big fat hassle that wouldn't benefit anyone.

All that led us to reflect and re-examine why we were changing the name. We did a little formal and informal research and found that we'd gained some more brand equity with Pegasus News since we started working on our revamp nine months ago. So, while we probably won't use the name for our sites outside DFW, for the foreseeable future, Pegasus News will stay Pegasus News , just in a sexier suit. I've learned to never say never, but I will say that the name won't change until we find something that we know is better.

That said, what we're about to launch is a major enough change to call it a "new site." I know I haven't posted as much here as I meant to on the new look and features -- that's because we've been too busy finishing it off to write about it. The soft launch is coming soon. I won't say the day or the hour, as the PegNews 2.0 cometh like a thief in the night, but when you do wake up to find a new and improved site, it'll still be Pegasus News . Instead of a relaunch, let's call it an anniversary present, as it roughly coincides with the 3rd annivesrary of PegNews and our 4th anniversary as a company.

Since 8 out of 10 small businesses fail before the third anniversary -- and that number is higher for publishing ventures -- that's something for all of us to celebrate here at Pegasus News .