Thoughts on the News Journal Redesign
Some weeks ago, Delawareonline, the online home of the Wilmington News Journal, underwent a redesign. While I have heard some complaints, I actually like it. Very clean, organized, and crisp looking.
The paper version though…
As one commenter mentioned on another thread… very USA Today-ish.
It looks like US Today more color presented in boxes and less substance, imitation news, it definitely lowers the educational level of the reader; however, you never even pretended to be on par with real newspapers
SUCKS.
Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic analogies come to mind…
BTW, the online version often doesn’t work. Empty boxes with the copy but no photos.
BTWBTW, it costs money to do these redesigns. Three guesses as to what gets cut to make way for new cosmetics.
Nowadays I only read the News Journal online AND only when something prompts me to look for a specific article. Since I don’t really browse anymore, the current UI is just fine for my purposes. I assume 30-day archiving is still in effect, which limits my readership even more. Good news is the paywall seems to be gone.
Okay, just cancelled our subscription. When asked why I said, “If we wanted USA Today we would subscribe to USA Today.”
More comic book or magazine feel. I read the paper for local stories, local politics and opinion. Seems like there is less of that. USA Today is not what I bought it for.
Linking to the previous thread and comments on this topic from a QOD a few weeks ago when they changed the website.
Up to $325 in coupons! The paper doesn’t cost money it makes money.
Evidently you CAN make a bad paper worse. Let’s go back to the real Wilmington Journal which covered national issues as well as real Delaware issues. Never liked USAToday….don’t like it any better when called the Wilmington Journal.
According to the guy who runs the Gannett blog – Gannett isn’t a newspaper company anymore. They bought 20 TV stations in December, and they project that broadcasting will eventually account for more than half of all earnings.
They’ve eliminated over 20,000 jobs since the workforce peaked at 53,000 in 2003 and Wall Street is applying pressure for them to spin off the newspaper division once and for all.
Maybe Rupert Murdoch will buy it? That would be great news for Charlie Copeland and the brain-trust that runs CRI on behalf of the Koch Bros.
Apparently the comic-book look is just the thing for the new fad of consumer tablet computers.
Really shrewd move, NJ. USA Today has a repulsively conservative editorial (and news) slant. Great fit for a Blue state. What genius figured out that fit?
I’m not against presentations that are attractive in a purely visual manner. They have their place; some in museums, some over my couch. But I generally prefer presentations to have meaning outside of themselves, to have content I’m interested in. The new NJ/DO look is neither attractive nor meaningful. The DO site looks like a PowerPoint–yawn–no, like six PowerPoints at once–aaarg! And to make it worse, for me at least, 4 of those are not at all interesting.
Then there’s the NJ. The Sunday “flagship” front page shown here is the only example of it I’ve seen so I’ll keep my comments limited it. Where do I start on this somewhat attractive presentation, at the top? No, because of instead of a traditional masthead, a logo on top of the page, there is a self-promo ad, the name of the paper in a boring font and the price—no that’s not the price, where is the price? Moving down the page, through the pretty picture, to where the stories used to be, I see there are lots of “graphic elements” but there is only one story. “I’m ‘sposed to be paying $xxx for one story?” Wait, I see more stories down at the bottom. No, my bad, they are ads, refers and a kindergarten style weather forecast.
I don’t know what’s inside and I never will. I’ll not pay $xxx to find out, when I do just fine elsewhere for free or paying to get exactly what I want. I did subscribe when it was a locally produced—written, illustrated and designed paper—and was, thereby, back then the best of the alternatives. But that has not been the case for years.
I mean, there’s a straightforward reason why it’s “very USA today-ish”, and why it says “Sunday News Journal + USA Today”… they’re both Gannett companies. Why wouldn’t they try to consolidate their national news arms into USA Today and leave a skeleton crew in the local papers to cover local issues?
El Som re: redesigns – Don’t think for a second that they spent much on this redesign. It’s a template from other papers that they just ported over. Change a few words and presto! News Journal facelift. (Case in point: http://www.lohud.com/ look familiar?)
It’s still a great paper
Still a piece of crap newspaper. Always the promoter and apologist for the dupont company. Is it no wonder that they won’t publish my LTE’s that rail about dupont not paying any federal taxes for the last few years because their money allowed them to buy legislators with “campaign contributions”( why can’t we just call them bribes?) Just read this week that dupont is the second worst corporate polluter in the country. What are the chances they will publish any LTE that brings that fact out.
If I didn’t need newspaper to get my wood stove fires going, I’d dump them in a heartbeat!
PS Nothing makes me any happier on a Sunday to go thru eight “A” sections of the paper to get to the Editorial…
Yeah, but the excitement of the new format is that it will be a while before you know where to find what you’re looking for. (Why didn’t they think of color-coded tabs?)
Did anyone read that monstrous piece on Joe Biden written by the guy from Politico? Buried, about four pages in, was the nugget the NJ’s crack reporting team couldn’t nail down in its story on Beau the week before — that he had a mass removed from his brain last fall. Given the big deal they have tried to make of the silence surrounding Beau’s health, you would think that one of the editors who had read this story might have suggested playing that tidbit more prominently.
If I didn’t need newspaper to get my wood stove fires going…
I know, right? Who ever thought we would live in a world that doesn’t have stacks of old newspaper in every house.
To start fires I use junk mail and boxes from my recycling bin. In a pinch there is always free junk newsprint available in supermarket vestibules, or even the library or post office. The IRS 1040 instruction booklet is printed on newsprint and one will start a fire nicely, just rip out the pages and crumple them individually.
Austin A: I notice that, in your posts, every guy is a great guy and every paper is a great paper.
Tell the truth: Are you Don Tollefson blogging from jail? Enquiring minds want to know.
I know change is difficult and I am trying, but I really don’t like it.