Editor and Publisher Gives Newspaper Websites a B-
Steve Outing from Editor and Publisher wrote a good column yesterday about the progress newspapers have made in transitioning to online strategies. He gave the industry a B- for their transition efforts thus far.
Here is a quick summary of his main criticisms of newspaper websites, all of which I agree with:
- Not enough are using video. Based on our study, 61 of the top 100 newspapers offer video on their websites. That number seems ok, but the truth is that many newspapers offer video as an afterthought. It is rarely a fundamental part of the overall strategy.
- Better blogging still needed. Newspapers are blogging (80 of the top 100 according to our research), but Outing believes papers should focus more on breaking news in their blog strategies.
- Classifieds still stink. Outing rightly points out that classified ad sections at newspapers are stuck in the 1990s.
- Not enough interactivity. In my opinion (and Outings), this is the big one. In a nutshell, newspapers need to use their website to foster two way communication between readers and journalists.
Personally, I’d give the industry a C and add the following as additional areas of improvement:
- Work with your local blogging/podcasting/vlogging community. Newspapers need to figure out ways to effectively incorporate user generated content into their offerings.
- Focus on local and special interest content. Too many website emphasize generic national and international AP content that folks can read anywhere. Newspaper should highlight their own original content – that is where they add value online.
- Give users different ways to discover site content. Let users view your homepage based on the most viewed on content in addition to the traditional editorial view.
Taking at Look at the New York Times Most Popular Feature
Jeff Jarvis points to an interesting post by Chris Riley that compares the editor-controlled content on the BBC homepage to the content on the BBC Most Popular Now page, which is determined by usage patterns of site visitors. He found editors and users were in synch in the stories they chose 37% of the time.
Reading this reminded me to write a about the Most Popular feature on the New York Time’s website. I am not a voracious reader of the New York Times but like to check in on it every few days. I do this not to catch up on the “latest news” so much as to read some of the great long form pieces they churn out on a regular basis. I read the Times more like a magazine than a newspaper.
The Most Popular tool is a great way for me to pretty quickly find the most interesting articles to read. Look at some of the stories they are highlighting today:
- Gilded Paychecks: Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices – A story about how professionals such as doctors are pursuing profitable alternative career options.
- What It Takes to Make a Student – A long piece that looks at whether “teaching poor children to act more like middle-class children help close the education gap.”
- Holiday Books: 100 Notable Books of the Year – Great list of the best books so far this year.
- One Spoonful at a Time – A very moving article about a mother’s struggle to get her anorexic daughter healthy.
- ‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations – Article about the hidden meaning of sign offs in email messages.
To me, the Times homepage is less interesting. It features links to articles about the big international news stories the day (which I’ve already heard about elsewhere), a bunch of business stories and some regional stories I’m not interested in since I’m in DC.
The Most Popular feature isn’t perfect – there isn’t an RSS feed to subscribe to or a way to view the most popular stories by topic (I’d love to drill down further). But for me it is a great way to quickly discover interesting Times stories I would probably have missed otherwise. The fact is the readers of the the Times are pretty smart folks and do a great job of identifying interesting content.
Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project Revamps its Online Program
On Friday, our pro-bono client the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP) launched a redesigned and revamped version of its website, www.exonerate.org. MAIP is a member of a network of non-profits around the country that works to provide legal services for people wrongly imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. The Project uses DNA evidence to exonerate and clear the names of people that are victims of shortcomings of the US judicial system.
By embarking on a new Web program, MAIP hopes to spread awareness of DNA exonerations and garner support from interested lawyers, students, volunteers and professionals. To do this, MAIP has integrated a blog, online volunteer and contribution forms, and methods for supporters to take action on behalf of the project via the Web. The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project depends on the assistance of volunteer students and lawyers, so be sure to check out their website and consider lending a helping hand.
Some interesting tidbits about the MAIP site:
- Our design and programming teams worked together to build the site entirely in WordPress. One of the problems MAIP had with their past website was that content became outdated and links to news stories died as the years passed. We tried to battle this problem by setting up the Innocence Project so that they can control what content appears on their site and develop the ability to change their website as they see fit.
- The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project plans to communicate with volunteers and supporters via their blog. Check this site for updates on exonerations, case information, and guest blog entries from board members or people the project has helped in the past.
We wish the folks over at the Mid Atlantic Innocence Project the best of luck with their online program–they are a great group of people who are doing exceptional work for those who need help.
Redesigning USA Today
As a designer, I’ve struggled as how to best contribute to our blog. Most web design articles speak to people who aren’t designers and tend to focus on the obvious. I don’t intend to add to that.
So I decided to attempt a redesign of the USA Today homepage as companion piece to our recommendations to the newspaper industry. Senior designer Jei Park and I sat down and figured if we’re going to talk the talk, we might as well start walking as well. A couple of notes:
(1) In putting this together, we included every element of the current USA Today site. We wanted to come up with something that could actually be implemented, not something so conceptual that it could never see the light of day. In other words, we didn’t take the easy way out.
(2) We chose USA Today because it is the most circulated paper in the country, and which has had the same design for a couple of years. The point is to show what we think these things should look like. As a designer, the last thing I’m interested in is criticizing the work of other designers. That isn’t the point here.
(3) We want to hear your thoughts. If you like it, say so. If you hate it, say so. If you have changes you’d like to see, say so. If you think we’ve missed something, say so. We intend to act on the feedback and come up with a revised version in the next few weeks that takes into account what you have to say. The goal of this is to start a conversation about what newspaper websites should look like.
The design process almost always happens behind closed doors. Let’s see what happens when we get lots of good feedback from cross section of smart people. Click here or on the image above to see the full view. You can read Todd’s explanation of the features presented here. Tell us what you think.
MySpace Welcomes Magazines
I found an interesting tidbit of information today on the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) website, which provides circulation trend data and marketing information for magazine publishers and advertisers.
MPA provides a list of 36 magazines that have active profiles on MySpace. Basically, these profiles give magazines an outlet for reaching out to tech-minded teens and young people on a personal level.
The MySpace pages of these magazines usually consist of a blog, a profile picture that depicts the most recent magazine cover, video content, featured music, and LOTS of comments. For example, on the Cosmopolitan and Maxim pages, there are over 20,000 and 46,000 friends listed, respectively. These magazines and others have created huge online communities not on their official websites, but on their MySpace pages.
Some of the most developed of the MySpace magazine pages are the pages for Teen Magazines, like CosmoGirl and Seventeen. These sites have links to interactive content on their regular homepages, and feature quizzes and games to engage their teen MySpace audiences.
In a report by Kat Haddon, “A Changing Business Model for a Virtual Phenomenon“, which is featured on the MPA website, the author gives a detailed explanation of the history of MySpace as well as suggestions for ways in which MySpace and other social networking sites can turn their huge audiences into profitable business models. Kat finishes her report with the following quote:
We trust the media we know, and we explore the media we don’t know. But with all our focus on new media, we seem to be forgetting the most important medium: people. Real-life community is an integral part of MySpace’s new proposed business model, because it has the potential to open doors for the future of marketing by bringing us back to real-life relationships.
It seems like magazines understand that the structure of news and media is changing, and some are trying to take advantage of this shift by offering online supplements to their printed content. While newspaper websites tend to be redundant when compared to their printed versions and other news sites, magazines sites supplement their print editions with original content on the Internet. What I’ve noticed from conducting my current research about magazine sites is that while the homepages of magazines don’t offer a lot of geeky Web 2.0 features, they have created a significant amount of content that is easily digestible and fits the format of reading on the Web. I think the presence of magazine MySpace pages is a great example of how old media can reach out to new media audiences without expending a lot of cash or effort.
Here is a list of the magazine MySpace pages features on the MPA website: Continue reading “MySpace Welcomes Magazines” »