Late yesterday, Editor & Publisher’s Web site posted a must-read for any online newspaper editor considering, working on or launching a redesigned Web site.
“E&P spoke to the editors of three top newspaper sites -- USATODAY.com, latimes.com, and washingtonpost.com -- about how a redesign makes its way from a set of ideas and needs to an executed vision. One theme that emerged was that redesigning their site was an ongoing process that relies more and more on taking readers' opinions into effect and making the process more of a conversation than ever before. Still, one editor admitted, half of the reader feedback was initially negative.”
Washingtonpost.com went through a fairly significant home-page redesign earlier this year, as did USAToday.com, which saw its traffic increase significantly with the introduction of commenting features. LATimes.com has gone through (what staffers there call) a “Botox treatment” and is planning a more significant redesign. Three different sites, three different sets of challenges, priorities and more.