9 Ways for Newspapers to Improve Their Websites

Posted on August 29th, 2006
By Todd Zeigler in Blogs, Design, Media, Newspaper Study, Technology

We took a long look at the features U.S. newspapers include on their websites a few weeks back. In doing the research, we spent more time than is healthy looking at these things. So we figured we’d use this new found expertise for good and offer the newspaper industry some unsolicited advice on how to improve their websites.

(1) Start Using Tags. The structure of just about every site we looked at more or less followed that of the paper’s print edition. This is great if you are looking to read the print version of the paper but not great if you are looking to see everything the paper has written on, say, Joe Lieberman. Newspapers aren’t taking advantage of the opportunity the Internet offers to remix/categorize content.

The social news site Newsvine uses tags, and all I have to do is put in newsvine.com/lieberman and voila, I see all the Lieberman stories. Using tags to complement traditional navigation is a great way to offer alternative views of content and better relate stories to each other.

The taxonomy of newspaper sites is broken and using tags is a pretty good way to start fixing the problem.

(2) Provide Full Text RSS Feeds. Not a single newspaper we looked at offered full text RSS feeds. All of them only offered partial feeds, essentially using RSS like email notification - letting users know about new stuff in order to attract more page views. Newspaper should experiment with providing ad-supported full text RSS feeds. This is already common practice among blogs like Gawker (see right) and would satisfy the growing number of folks who want to read all their news in a single RSS reader.

(3) Work with External “Social” Websites. Only four of the hundred websites we looked at allowed bookmarking through social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us. And to my knowledge none allowed for easy submission of content to Digg from their website. Newspapers should work with sites like these as a way to promote and spread their content.

(4) Link to Relevant Blog Entries. Sites like the Washington Post are already partnering with Technorati to show “Who’s Blogging” about the story you are viewing (see left). Why bother? If I’m a blogger writing about a news event, I’m going to link to the Post story as a way of promoting my entry. It is a great way to facilitate discussion about (and links to) your content. In addition, the “Who’s Blogging” feature serves as a real time letters to the editor page.

(5) Get Rid of All Registration. I’m at the point where I’m not going to register to read content unless it’s the New York Times. I’ll either work around the registration using BugMeNot or just go elsewhere. Registration prevents your content from being discussed and spreading online. It hurts page views too.

(6) Partner with Local Bloggers. Lots of newspapers have their own blogs with content provided by overworked reporters. The quality of these blogs varies wildly from site to site. Why not partner with popular local bloggers and create a “best of” blog feed for your city/region? This seems like a good way to liven up your content and establish deep ties with bloggers in your region.

(7) Offer Alternative Views of Your Content. Editors are great gatekeepers and play an important function. But on the web why not give us a look at your homepage showing the most read stories? Or most blogged? Or even allow Digg style voting and show the stories with the most votes? I’m not advocating abandoning the concept of editors and going fully to a social model, but why not give people some choices as to how they look at your content? Alternatively, partner with a social news site like Reddit and let them create an alternative view of your homepage for you. Slate did.

(8) Modernize Your Site’s Graphic Design. Most of the newspaper sites we looked at had designs straight out of 2001. They used half of the screen real estate available on today’s wide screen monitors and looked sort of like online swap meets. The New York Times and Austin American Statesman are examples of sites with good, modern designs.

(9) Learn from Craigslist. In our study we didn’t look much at the Classified sections of the websites. But from what I’ve seen, newspapers could learn lots of lessons by looking at the efficient way Craigslist presents its content. Like Google, it’s brilliant because it is simple. Classified sections on newspapers sites are neither.

What do you think? How do you think newspapers can improve their sites?

Update 1: Forgot one.

(10) Make your content work on cell phones and PDAs. Sixteeen of the twenty one largest Japanese newspaper offer versions of their paper that work on a cell phone. I don’t think a single US paper includes this option, although Dave Winer has helped some sites out and put together mobile-friendly versions of a few papers as a public service.

Update 2: I did another post building on the list based on comments by readers.

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Comments

Leo Bottary

August 29th, 2006 at 7:49 pm

I think we should encourage sending this to our area newspapers across the country. I’ll do so tomorrow morning!
Ken Miller

August 29th, 2006 at 8:07 pm

Better searching should also be a priority. Search engines for these sites are terrible.
Joe Clark

August 30th, 2006 at 7:23 am

“Use better HTML” is another example. In your own case, you should be using an ordered list.
Jonathan

August 30th, 2006 at 9:35 am

You do realize that your examples in #8 violates your rule in #5?! Is there not an example that is working within all your recommended parameters?
Todd Zeigler

August 30th, 2006 at 10:16 am

Jonathan,

Below are examples of websites whose graphic designs we liked that don’t require registration.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
http://www.chron.com/

Thanks,

Todd
Old Grouch

August 30th, 2006 at 1:27 pm

In conjunction with #! (Start Using Tags), I’d also suggest Open Up Your Archives (at least a little more). Tags won’t help a lot if stories vanish after 10 days.Re: #8 (Redesign), as a user who’s still restricted to dialup, I’d beg: Pay attention to your loading times. Don’t use tons of images where text+CSS will do the job, and don’t deliver more javascript than content. It’ll keep your readers happy, and save on bandwidth.
mwood

August 30th, 2006 at 4:24 pm

I am sure many people already know this, but when faced with a registration requirement, the easiest thing to do, until newspapers realize their mistake, is head to http://www.bugmenot.com
bpocanada.com

August 30th, 2006 at 4:25 pm

Move to Drupal Infrastructure. It is perfect for Newspaper Industry
Jon Henshaw

August 30th, 2006 at 4:53 pm

The NashvillePost.com makes exstensive use of Tags and RSS, and also utilizes the One True Layout.
mwood

August 30th, 2006 at 5:08 pm

Bivings Report is also based on the One True Layout. It looks like the Nashville Post is having some problems in the right column in Firefox.
Adam Siegel

August 30th, 2006 at 6:58 pm

Am I the only one who thinks tag clouds are very poor usability? To have to read through 50 links in a 2″ by 2″ space, while visually cool, from a user’s perspective is a pain. Has anyone seen any better implementations of “tag clouds” - better than the one on this site for example?
WillR

August 30th, 2006 at 8:26 pm

Here’s a corollary to #5 <blockquote> 5) Get Rid of All Registration. I’m at the point where I’m not going to register to read content unless it’s the New York Times. I’ll either work around the registration using BugMeNot or just go elsewhere. Registration prevents your content from being discussed and spreading online. It hurts page views too. </blockquote> No registration and predictable PERMALINKS! My site, <a href="http://citizenwill.org">CitizenWill</a> and another local site, <a href="http://orangepolitics.org">OrangePolitics.org</a>, comment on local issues almost exclusively. For that, we link to local media, the <a href="http://dailytarheel.com">UNC’s Daily Tar Heel</a> (GREAT), the Independent Weekly [<a href="http://indyweek.com">IndyWeek</a>] (GREAT), the <a href="http://chapelhillnews.com">Chapel Hill News</a> (GOOD), the Chapel Hill News’ parent paper <a href="http://newsandobserver.com">McClatchy’s News and Observer</a> (BAD) and Durham’s HeraldSun (the WORST - screw linking to them). I recently checked my links to media on my site, OP and other local outlets - nearly %70 were broken because I used the HeraldSun/News and Observer way, way too much. I’m going to start quoting more extensively, attributing the content but forego linking because it creates such a poor user experience.
Charlie Brewer

August 30th, 2006 at 9:09 pm

A couple of points leap out #4 - I’m not going to get into one of those arguments about the veracity of bloggers content Vs. traditional journalists as I’m of the opinion that some bloggers beat journalist hands down. The point I would make is the amount of time it take the online editorial staff to sift the blogosphgere to locate content of a certain standard - more staff and better working practices will allow more interaction with relevant content sources regardless of their type. #5 - It can be argued that if a news website requests its users to register some basic details then the site can in return offer a better user experience by allowing customisation of page display, enhanced e-mail and desktop alerts and faster entry into competitions. While I agree the NYT is a very good website I don’t think it merits the status of ‘the only site I’d bother logging into’.
Joe

August 30th, 2006 at 9:33 pm

I disagree with the registration comment. What sites need to do is give positive reasons to register (neat tools that only work if the site knows who you are), instead of negative reasons to register (we won’t show you content). Too much of newspaper’s registration has no value add to the user other than letting you get at content (which should be open).
Gabriel Tonelli

August 31st, 2006 at 2:52 am

Multilingual versions would be wonderful!

At least for headlines and excerpts of main events. This would allow a worlwide audience. To my knowledge only CNN offers other language versions…
Thomas Power

August 31st, 2006 at 3:51 am

Great list.
Isn’t a simple summary of the 9 "become a Social Network"
Bruce Bartlett

August 31st, 2006 at 8:20 am

I have never understood why newspapers don’t take advantage of their web sites to offer more content. For example, a reporter might conduct an interview with someone but only use a couple of quotes in the story. Why not publish the whole interview online? Let people see for themselves everything the interviewee had to say and in context? And when reporting on court cases or studies of various kinds, why not post a copy on the web site or at least provide a link? This is simple stuff that would both make the web site more valuable and improve the credibility of newspapers. It’s really insane to just reprint the same material that is in the print edition.
Terinea

August 31st, 2006 at 8:43 am

Some of this advice can apply to other business web sites.
Todd Zeigler

August 31st, 2006 at 9:37 am

Joe/Old Grouch: Cleaner HTML is a great point.

Adam: I agree that tag clouds are essentially useless eye candy in most cases (including ours). I can tell you very few people click on them. I’d be interested in hearing about a better way as well.

Charlie/Joe: To clarify, I really don’t have a problem with optional registration or registration being required to use certain features (customized homepage, to post comments, etc.). I just feel strongly that papers should not require registration to read content. I am also someone who is not going to pay to read website content (unless I have to for work).

Gabriel: Multilingual versions are great if its economically feasible.

Thomas: I think "become a Social Network" pretty much sums it up. That is a very nice way of putting what I’m getting at.

Bruce: I think offering more supplemental content is a great idea. I’d also like to see the letter to the editor process become transparent. Why not just post all the letters you get on the website?

Thanks to everyone for their great ideas and comments.
jeff

August 31st, 2006 at 9:39 am

Here’s the best reason to get rid of registration.When the NYT started requiring it, one guy got really pissed of at the Times & decided to use as his name "Fuck The New York Times".The Times computer responded, "We’re sorry, but that name is all ready used, may we suggest ‘Fuck The New York Times 12′"That means he was the 13th person who wanted to do that!
scott

August 31st, 2006 at 10:11 am

Great stuff, Todd.
Dave Williams

August 31st, 2006 at 10:47 am

Give readers blurbs, ledes, nutgrafs or whatever so they can see what a story is about without having to guess from the hed ("Council approves group’s plan").
The first informed decision we can help readers make is the decision to read a story — or not. Not everyone is a "cover-to-cover" reader, and we shouldn’t punish readers who aren’t, even if we get more pageviews by forcing them to click on each hed to see what the story is about.
jh

August 31st, 2006 at 12:25 pm

Simply switch to PressDisplay.com and forget about the publisher site.

By the way more and more publishers simply switch to the PressDisplay platform.
Scott

August 31st, 2006 at 2:02 pm

Bravo!I couldn’t agree more.It almost seems as if the webmasters are constrained by print editors as to what they can and can’t do. And print editors know nothing about web publishing and design.
Jacki

August 31st, 2006 at 5:00 pm

Great list for online editors to consider. I would like to say that azcentral. com, the site for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, uses full-text RSS feeds and delivers news on cellphones and PDAs.
Bob Stepno

August 31st, 2006 at 5:59 pm

Great suggestions for class discussion at the start of an "online journalism" semester — especially when we have a local "River of News" development to talk about. Thanks! (http://radio.weblogs.com/0106327/2006/08/26.html#a627)
Todd Zeigler

August 31st, 2006 at 6:14 pm

Jacki - I think it’s fantastic that The Arizona republic offers a PDA version. Very cool. However, unless I’m missing something, they are providing only a partial RSS feed. See below:

http://www.azcentral.com/rss/f.....cfront.xml

We didn’t find a single paper with a full text RSS feed.

Thanks for the comment.
Bike Worker

September 1st, 2006 at 1:04 pm

Another suggestion: You suggest partnering with local bloggers (no. 6). How about newspapers partnering with special-interest blogs for sections that don’t often have a local focus — movies, automotive, etc.?
charlie madigan

September 1st, 2006 at 3:48 pm

It’s interesting to me that no one involved, from the creator of the list onward, had anything to say about the quality of content on newspaper websites. Very few of them reflect development of story telling and presentation skills. Take a close look at what Kevin Sites is doing the Hot Zone and think about how that model might apply to developing powerful, interesting content that goes far beyond repurposing text stories.
Dan Greenfield

September 2nd, 2006 at 4:49 pm

Excellent points. In writing from time to time about the impact of new media on journalism, I have stressed the importance of relevancy and participation. It is interesting to note that while newspaper readership is declining among younger Americans, college newspapers continue to thrive. Why?
Students have a relationship to their newspaper that most of us lack with our local paper. That’s because the newspaper is about them and written by them. And it is often their only source for campus news.
For newspapers to be successful, they need to replicate that sense of community and establish a bond with the reader that campus newspapers clearly have. Reader blogs, sites to post pictures and videos, and local news coverage at the micro level are some ways to keep readers engaged.
Shinderpal Jandu

September 4th, 2006 at 3:15 pm

It is amazing that most 14 year olds with blogs are light years ahead of large news corporations that have the massive resources and trained professional ? staff.
Management of the old school hiding in their top floor offices trying to intimidate others with technology instead of embracing the new technology.
http://www.ace-training.net
Erik Pöhler

September 6th, 2006 at 11:52 am

Oh sh*#%!!! craigslist is like a hammer on the head. Can’t believe they are successful or read by anyone…Too much for me.I’d consider the register to be forward, too. They have a much more intuitive and Information-focused design, which i like very much. Only Headlines and a subtitle. What do you need more?
IHEARTPDX

September 7th, 2006 at 11:14 am

This is by far my favorite layout/website…

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/
BigSpider

September 7th, 2006 at 1:38 pm

as i said before, you could find n different ideas of how to use vacant space, and over time, one will look better than the other…
what i would do is try to give more control to the user in the form of hotkeys that "hide" space-hoggers such as menus. cnn.com homepage redesign is TOO MUCH text on the homepage - too much text confuses the user.
thefirstpost uses flashy graphics while it looks good, it makes me question whether i would even bother spending time on it? it looks good, but so what?
Jesse

September 20th, 2006 at 10:08 pm

Sure, there are a decent number of cell phone/PDA-friendly news sites:http://mobile.latimes.comhttp://mobile.nytimes.com http://mobile.chicagotribune.com http://mobile.washingtonpost.com http://mobile.reuters.com http://wap.usatoday.com Among others. Some of these seem not to be doing device detection and redirection yet; you have to magically find out about these URLs somehow, so it’s fair to be unaware of this stuff. Hopefully that will change soon. (full disclosure: I’ve had my hand in some of this work)
Bill Ostendorf

October 5th, 2006 at 4:14 am

Sad that you didn’t focus more attention on classifieds because that is a huge issue for both newspapers and users.

One issue we’ve encounterd is that more users abandon classified entry on the web than complete the process. Why? Because the whole concept that most people know how to write an effective classified ad was a bad assumption.

We created a solution that helps people write better ads. Here’s an example from a TV station:
http://wjar.adqic.com/index.adq
We also have about 20 newspapers up and running.

Next, we’re tackling the display of classified ads, which to date has been terrible. Why should an online classified ad read, look or feel like a text ad? And why do all the ads look the same? Not much fun for shoppers!

Yes, content comes first. When when it comes to placing ads and shopping, fun plays a role, too!
Django

October 13th, 2006 at 11:16 pm

I’ve been saying for months they need to go to something like Digg. A nice comments and rating system on the fly ala- AJAX.
Joe

November 7th, 2006 at 7:23 pm

just checkin things out
Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound

December 6th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

–Include the editorial calendar in a place where readers, including advertisers, can find it easily. Most newspapers, if they have it all, bury it three and four layers into the site.

–Include a list of pitching tips.

–List reporters’ and editors’ names, along with photos and email addresses.

–List reporters who blog, and link to the blogs.
barney

December 20th, 2006 at 5:39 am

Check out this company website.

they are based in n ireland and have 7 newspaper titles.

they also have a design service in house offering web and graphic services!!! pretty impressive!
jack

January 8th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

Nice site actually. Gone to my favourites. Thanks for creation.
NetzzJD

January 8th, 2007 at 6:25 pm

I am webmaster for a small newspaper and have to say that this list has some very great suggestions I’d like to implement. But, being in the position I am, I can say that the hold up lies in management. Most editors are still convinced that the newspaper is a paper and print industry and not a news and information one. They are all resistant if not fearful to change from their 50 yr old business model. After all, they need to protect the almighty circulation numbers and (in their eyes) the web gets in the way of that. Scott has a great quote above: “…webmasters are constrained by print editors.” This is the exact situation according to me and I assume most other webmasters in the biz.
morganusvitus

April 5th, 2007 at 7:17 am

The site looks great ! Thanks for all your help ( past, present and future !)
Jamie

April 25th, 2007 at 9:55 am

I agree about how simple and clean Craigslist is. I did some GIS analysis of the craigslist websites and how many people theyt reach in over 280 US urban areas. Very enlightening for online marketing. I have a free Google map of all the 289 sites in the US, so you could compare those (and possibly id what newspapers they are squeezing out in each area). http://www.aMillionPlaces.com
Larry

May 1st, 2007 at 5:23 pm

Hello,

I am in 100% agreement with most of your points….BUT….i do worry that by suggesting AGAINST any form of registration, you are advocating giving full content away. Just as a reference, what we do at First Day Story ( http://www.firstdaystory.com ) is allow the publisher to pick and choose what content is protected and what is free. This is then carried through to the design of the online editions, making it clear to readers what they can get for free…and what they cant.
Venture Itch

May 9th, 2007 at 7:08 am

Topix.net reported that by cancelling registration to make comments they immediately increased their traffic. Regarding “Provide Full Text RSS Feeds”, I doubt newspapers want to lose visitors to RSS aggregators.
ivanjj

May 12th, 2007 at 8:47 pm

Hi My Name Is ivaexc.
ivazmk

May 12th, 2007 at 9:48 pm

Hi My Name Is ivafce.
Bill Compton

June 4th, 2007 at 3:58 pm

Hi Jim. Photos i received. Thanks
robert

June 14th, 2007 at 1:34 pm

hi all.
Aperfectcirle

October 4th, 2007 at 5:25 am

I wonder what will be the state of newspapers after five years? The sales of newspapers is already decreasing in western countries, while surprisingly it is increasing in countries like India. (Where I live) Today we receive most of our news updates online by subscribing to RSS feeds of either blogs or news websites. But in five years time, will newspapers be redundant or will they do even better?
Loconut - Perth News

October 17th, 2007 at 2:08 am

Sub standard RSS feeds are still the biggest gripe for me with large news organisations.
Dominic

March 15th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Halo

March 15th, 2008 at 5:58 am