E&P: Newspaper Web efforts get a B-
A columnist for Editor & Publisher, the trade journal covering the newspaper biz, surveyed papers' Web sites and gave the industry as a whole a B-minus (via Romenesko).Among Steve Outing's specific complaints, he wonders why more newspapers aren't doing more audio and video, which remain "at stepchild status at best."
He also says newspapers too often remain stuck in "gather all the facts, then write the story" mode when it comes to breaking news. More papers should be blogging about breaking news as it develops, he says. "Some stories are important enough--are urgent enough--that they should be treated to a 'here's what we know now' and 'here's what else we just learned' an hour later treatment," he writes.
He also complained about boring online classified ads and a relative lack of true interactivity. "Too many sites remain stuck in one-way, we-tell-you mode," he writes.
One thing he doesn't target is something that continually bugs me on newspaper sites: presentation and ease of use.
Newspapers dedicate years and multiple staffers to redesigns of the physical product, but Web design still too often comes across as an afterthought.
Washingtonpost.com, for example, is full of good information but it looks cluttered and uninviting. The New York Times' site is better since its semi-recent redesign, with a more orderly appearance and plenty of variety high up on the page. Meanwhile, the site for a place like the Austin American-Statesman, where I used to work, hammers you with brutally large ads and makes you jump through registration hoops to access its articles.
Anyone else have examples of particularly inviting/uninviting newspaper sites?
--Jeremy Egner
posted by Mark H. @ 11/27/2006 04:00:00 PM
3 Comments:
One of the worst, in my opinion, is my hometown newspaper, The Press Enterprise, where I used to work. The text on the homepage isn't random, but whenever I go to this site, I get the feeling that someone thought that they could squeeze in just a few more articles, photos or ads, and not take off anything.
If you go to the Providence Journal, which is also owned by Belo, you get the same feeling, I think. The site for Belo's main paper, the Dallas Morning News, is a little better. Actually, I like the Belo corporate site.
sorry, the previous comment was from Ken :-)
Wow, that American-Statesman site is bad!
I'm fond of the Boston Globe's website, which offers everything in the paper and a lot more. I like the design of the site, very clean with the navigation at the top and not too much clutter.
I also like the Montreal Gazette which is part of the big Canada.com family. The French-language Montreal paper La Presse is colorful with minimal advertising.
I tend to prefer a site that doesn't expand to fit the screen (a la The Statesman or the Providence Journal), but rather is limited to about 800 pixels wide, whether it's centered or left-justified. It just seems easier to read to me, partly because I think we prefer to read vertically rather than horizontally.
I'm not crazy about the NY Times site for this very reason, it's just a little too wide for my tastes...too much information on the screen.
- Max A.
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