HAI Introduces ROTOR Media Website

With the goal of providing faster, more accessible news, features, and videos, HAI introduces the graphics-driven ROTOR Media website, rotormedia.com. HAI is also in the process of overhauling the organization’s original, rotor.org website and offering new tools to prioritize content for HAI members.

First and foremost, the new ROTOR Media site includes content from current and past editions of ROTOR magazine. It also serves as the story database for ROTOR Daily, HAI’s daily news aggregator. Additionally, the new website features the weekly HAI@Work webinar series, where users can find the link to the next webinar and the archive of all past webinars, which are listed in chronological order.

“We wanted to make the site easy to use and provide robust content,” says Dan Sweet, director of public relations and communications for HAI. “The new site provides all of our media content in one place and allows readers to enjoy the stories, images, and videos in the format they choose.

“While function was important, much of the credit for the design and appeal of the new site goes to Gina Kvitkovich, editor of ROTOR magazine and HAI’s director of publications and media,” adds Sweet. “She worked extensively with our web designer to make the site as graphically dynamic as ROTOR magazine, so the site is full of images and graphics, making it compelling and easily accessible to readers.”

ROTOR magazine is available several different ways via ROTOR Media, providing readers with access to the content for consumption immediately or when they’re offline. They can peruse the stories from the latest edition or skim through previous issues. Pilots and field crews who expect to be outside of mobile service or Wi-Fi range can download PDFs or a fully digital version of the magazine and read it at their convenience.

A redesigned ROTOR Daily also features prominently on the new website. Stories are available in chronological order, with the latest news posted toward the top of the page. Readers seeking articles on a specific subject can also click on various discrete story categories, accessing items published in that content area over the past two months. The ROTOR Daily eblast, available to subscribers each business day, also underwent a redesign, making the content more visually appealing and easier to view.

The HAI@Work webinar page is joining the ROTOR Media website and will be undergoing a redesign as well. Past webinars are currently provided in chronological order only. On the new site, users will also be able to search the webinars by subject.

“In the next few weeks, we’ll introduce the new HAI (rotor.org) website, too,” continues Sweet. “We’re working through the process by ‘chunking it.’ We’ve already posted changes to the layout of the HAI HELI‑EXPO® website and, now, we’ve unveiled the ROTOR Media site. The new rotor.org site will also feature revised menu structures for each HAI department, allowing visitors to locate the topics that are important to them more quickly.”

Much of the two new websites will ­feature content accessible only to HAI members.

“Many other associations already limit access to their content to just their members,” says Sweet. “We want our members to understand they have access to certain content that isn’t available anywhere else. We’ll continue to offer non-HAI members access to some restricted content without joining. Other sections will provide nonmembers a restricted view of the content and then offer them an opportunity to join HAI if they’re interested in seeing more of the website.”

HAI is also excited about our newest method of providing news and show services to everyone in the rotorcraft community: the ROTOR Now app, which is available for iPhones and Androids. The app serves as a hybrid of sorts, offering access to news and ROTOR magazine while also serving as the official show app for HAI HELI‑EXPO. “Users can sign in to get the content of ROTOR Daily delivered as an RSS feed before the daily email is even distributed,” says Sweet. “They can also access stories from ROTOR magazine or download the entire digital version if they prefer.

“Between the app and the new and revised websites, we’re excited about these enhanced methods of communicating with everyone in the VTOL industry,” adds Sweet. “Like all new launches, we might encounter a hiccup or two as we implement these new tools, but we’re certain our members, readers, and visitors are going to enjoy these changes.”