The new CNN.com isn’t a news website

The new CNN.com isn’t a news website October 27, 2009

Posted by Todd Zeigler in Design, Media, Website review

cnn

As you probably know by now, CNN launched a redesigned website yesterday. While I like the look and feel, the thing that really strikes me about the new homepage is how little of it is devoted to news. As you’ll see in the screen shot above, the far left column that I’ve highlighted in yellow is hard news while the rest of the page, which I have greyed out, is devoted to feature stories, ads and site features.

As a frequent visitor, it seems to me that CNN site has been shifting for awhile towards feature stories/ lifestyle news and away from hard news. With less than 1/3rd of the above the fold homepage devoted to national/world news, I think this new design is another big step in that direction.

4 comment(s)

Comments

kenneth - October 27th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

You should gray out the links on the left that are videos too.
Vadim Lavrusik - October 27th, 2009 at 5:01 pm

I think something to consider is that they are featuring content that may not otherwise be seen and expose readers to this content that usually goes unnoticed. The Breaking news is still quite prominent. A lot of news orgs are starting to do this with their sites to drive traffic by featuring their feature stories and content more prominently on a site.
Judy - November 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 am

I did a google search to see if anyone was as frustrated with the “Latest News” presence on the new CNN website as I was, and there I found your review. You’re spot on. CNN has been my home page for years, and while I LOVE the new look and feel of the new site, I am disappointed by the “crammed” space communicating the latest news. I suggested in a comment to CNN’s “Feedback” link to switch the Latest News column with the larger middle column currently displaying CNN features. In my opinion, if this was done, the site would be wonderful. I’m going to give it a little more time to let CNN fine tune the site after its recent launch. If News doesn’t become more prominent, I will search for a new homepage–which I really don’t want to do.
Tom - November 12th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

The new site is disappointing. The mere fact that the “feature” in the middle of the page uses a bigger headline font than the biggest news headline is telling.

CNN seems to be in the process of becoming the next People Magazine, only disguised as a news organization.

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