I see many Gannett news sites, but few look quite like the one for The Arizona Republic and KPNX-TV. All of the company's news sites are due for a makeover in the months ahead. WBIR in Knoxville, Tenn., was apparently first out of the gate last week. But Gannett Digital ought to fast track the one for Phoenix.
To get a full measure of its awfulness, go to azcentral.com. Could that Bedmart banner ad be any bigger? Here's a recent screenshot:
To get a full measure of its awfulness, go to azcentral.com. Could that Bedmart banner ad be any bigger? Here's a recent screenshot:
It's all the more amazing when you consider Phoenix is one of Gannett's biggest operations.
ReplyDeleteHey - the girl needs coin. Bedmart's the coin. Again - GCI is not about journalism. Why do you keep expecting them to provide that?
DeleteEven worse, they recently laid off one of the most talented people they had in the purge of a few weeks ago
ReplyDeleteGCI didn't design this. Jim, one thing you SHOULD know by now is that The Republic has been very independent of GCI mandates and technologies that have impacted other sites. Phoenix never had to use Saxotech or other Gannett Digital atrocities. The site is hosted, developed, designed all by Phoenix. Even the backend publishing system has been independent of Gannett for eons. Now all of this is supposed to change when GCI forces Phoenix to jump on board and have the technology housed by GCI... but until then?
ReplyDeleteNow as far as the design goes, the funny thing is that MH and BG's group just finished this 'redesign' last fall. What you are looking at is their new brain child.
9/12/2013 12:19 AM - None of the those laid off a few weeks ago have any impact on the design or look and feel of the site.
The more interesting thing to me is how The Republic's front page has suddenly morphed from all "news" . . . to News, Sports and a Feature.
ReplyDeleteThat’s the homepage, the clearest, easiest to navigate part of AZ Central. Trying to navigate that site beyond the home page is like trying to follow a map drawn by a dyslexic 12 year old. Nothing makes sense. They want people to pay for this?
ReplyDeleteYeah, the ad's a little whorish, but Phoenix was trying to avoid the pay wall - and the ads were seen as an attempt to hold that off for a while. As ugly as the ad is, do you really think the USA Today-in-a-can version that all Gannett sites will be using soon is really that much better than any design in use now? I like that USAT at least tried something new, but it's pretty much a hodgepodge that's not all that easy to get around or use. And it's a bit of a head-explosion trying to focus on anything. So say what you will about azcentral.com, at least they were the last to become homogenized.
ReplyDelete