The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., launched its new website design yesterday, just a day after Florida Today rolled out the same Gannett-mandated look. The new template is meant to promote even more interaction between readers and editors. Yet, the two papers took very different approaches in soliciting reader reaction -- offering lessons for other editors on the verge of making the switch.Florida Today's note announcing the change did exactly what you'd expect: encouraged easy feedback. "If you have any questions or concerns about the new site, please drop us an e-mail to webmaster@floridatoday.com,'' the note said. Editors also offered a chance to comment on the note itself. (As I post, readers have left 10 pages of comments. And they're pretty negative -- as is often the case with any sudden change.)
The C-J's now hard-to-find note, on the other hand, ends this way: "Enjoy the new look, new features and improved user experience." There's no suggested path for quick feedback, and (so far) no comments allowed on the note -- leaving some confused readers in one of the forums wondering aloud about the changes.
Local critics are divided on the switch. "The new one is much better,'' says Rick Redding of the alternative weekly, Leo; he got an advance peek. But the 'Ville Voice is blunt: "It sucks.'' (Curious about reader reaction, I just started my own discussion thread on the C-J's site; you should be able to see it here.)
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Speaking of Web sites, here's an interesting report in the Nashville Scene about the lame blogs on the Tennessean site:
ReplyDeleteMarch 20, 2008
If Erma Bombeck blogged
Graying journalists usually make for terrible bloggers. Either they don’t grasp the informal nature of the medium and wind up penning short and mundane news stories, or they think of it as a way to unload whatever trivial thoughts pop into their heads. As you might have guessed from reading some of her more halfhearted efforts, Tennessean columnist Gail Kerr falls into that second trap. Her most recent blog post, titled “Whole Foods is Amazing...Amazingly Expensive,” doesn’t offer any fresh insight or perspective; it’s just a plainly written gripe one might see in an email exchange between two suburban housewives.
“If I lived near Whole Foods, it would be tempting to pick up supper there on nights I’m too tired to cook,” writes Kerr, who, when she feels like it, can be a good columnist. “The food is beautiful and fresh. But I just can’t justify it in my Ms. Cheap-level, anti-credit-card, pay-our-bills-on-time budget. I’d rather spend my whole paycheck elsewhere.”
In 2008, Kerr’s posted a whopping six times, and that includes her trenchant analysis on the pricing of organic foods. Other entries include an item about her husband calling to say that the power had gone out in their Bellevue neighborhood, and a press-releasey morsel about the city’s 911 campaign. In early February, she waxed about her guitar-playing hubby headlining at the Bluebird Cafe, and that was it for the rest of the month. Meanwhile, Sally the Dog, who authors a Tennessean blog, posted eight times during that same period. When a canine imposter, mimicking a dog’s musings on life, is a better blogger than you are, it’s time to take a long, hard look at how you’re spending your time.
Then again, why are we picking on Kerr when the political bloggers are nearly as invisible. The paper’s state and national political journal has two posts this month, while the Metro one has averaged a post every other day for the last six weeks or so. What’s the point of having a blog if it’s less timely than the dead tree product?
Tennessean editor Mark Silverman loves to brag about the paper’s array of online journals, even if most of them are meager efforts that are unlikely to keep readers coming back for more. By Desperately’s count, the paper has well over 40 blogs, including a recreation and fitness blog, a nature blog, a few shopping blogs, a pet blog and a Sally the Dog blog. The paper itself even has a column about blogs. Yet despite The Tennessean’s obsession with the medium, it’s not doing anything special with it. The blogs aren’t regularly updated, and when they are, readers can’t expect to find smart, breezy commentary and new reporting flashing on their screen. Instead, we just get half-assed puns about Whole Foods. —M.P.