The websites for The Arlington Times and The Marysville Globe are getting a fresh look Aug. 27 that will help readers get faster access to local news — and more of it.

The new crisp-and-clean design makes space for more stories and photographs on the newspapers’ home pages, and also offer easier access to readers on-the-go.

The home pages are topped with a new navigation bar which boasts a quick-glance box for current weather conditions. Also at the top are icons for mobile applications and social media, so readers can quickly share stories and news with others.

The websites will continue to use the “river of news” format — with the most current content appearing at the top of the home page — though top stories will feature larger photographs, plus larger headlines and summaries.

As more stories and features are published each day, older stories will carry smaller headlines and flow toward the bottom of the homepage. The box for “trending stories” — articles that are connecting with readers and being shared and read more often than other content — will also be repositioned on the home page; higher, for faster access for readers.

Online readers should notice more news on the websites’ home pages.

“With the new design, we’ll be able to fit more content on the page than before,” said Paul Brown, publisher of The Arlington Times and THe Marysville Globe. “I believe that our readers will really like the changes that we’ve made.”

Stories will also be easier to share. Underneath each story byline, readers will find options for emailing the article, printing a copy or sending a letter to the editor about the topic. At the bottom of each story page, readers will also find links to related articles, as well as trending stories.

“The redesign has also improved the presentation of the story — the typography is better and it’s easier to read,” said Brown. “It’s also easier to find sharing tools and it’s easier to find related and trending content.”

The website update is being launched across most of Sound Publishing’s titles, including The Arlington Times and The Marysville Globe, though the websites for paid-access newspapers will share a slightly different makeover. It’s the first update to Sound Publishing websites – which boast 2.2 million unique visitors and 11.5 million page views a month — since 2010.