"We've" been listening to you!Submitted by whiffleball on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 2:37pm.
So, the Big O has been listening to us - and are preparing a re-launch of the website. http://www.oregonlive.com/aboutus/prelaunch/ Of course, they're getting the re-launch after several other newspapers in the chain get the makeover. The good news: it looks different. The bad news: it looks the same. ( topics: Oregonian )
Why not use the Google Reader/Blog style where all the stories for a specific category are on top of each other instead of a jumbled mess of links everywhere? Put the millions of ads and featured links on the side of the page or in between stories. I want to read the news online, not the freaking NEWSPAPER. If you go to any of the specific category pages, that's pretty much what you see: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/ I attended a focus group that the Oregonian held years ago about their technology coverage (they showed us examples of papers that had "personal technology" sections, for example). When I mentioned their website presented a lot of opportunity for improvement :-), they told us that Advance was responsible for it, and that there was nothing they could do about it. It was clear that none of the people running the focus group were happy about the arrangement. To the Oregonian's credit though, I've noticed that the Oregonian photographers use other technologies: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theoregonian/collections/ I guess using flickr could be an Advance initative... Regardless, the photos from the Obama visit to Portland were quite good: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theoregonian/sets/72157605128051788/ and I've enjoyed most of all their historical images collection, where you can find good quality versions of old Oregonian photos, such as the ones of FDR dedicating Timberline Lodge in 1937, and those from the 1970 coverage of The Vortex, the Tom McCall-sponsored Woodstock Festival: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theoregonian/sets/72157604590292394/ The entire universe is outsourced. Relax and read it. Knowing the latest news won't help you in any way important. Plus, if you say something wrong about something you read, your friends, such as they are, will think less of your intellect, which they never thought of anyway. I agree with the impression the commenter above got from the focus group meeting - many of the Oregonian journalists and staff are actually pretty tech-savvy, but they've only recently had the opportunity to develop some fledgling projects. Advance's decisionmaking is very East Coast based, which may be why they ignored the Oregonian's internal resources and contract with another company (a subsidiary? not sure) to handle the website, which lots of people quite understandably believe is the Oregonian's website. So, while print journalism is tough all over, OregonLive is also cannibalizing the Oregonian by cutting into revenue from advertising, circulation, and classifieds, and diluting its brand by mixing Oregonian content with its own items. The OregonLive content is often chock full of spelling and grammatical errors, never mind any questions of substantive merit. Plus, the site has been plagued by problems with design and functionality. I doubt there are many at the Oregonian who have a favorable view of OregonLive. There's a huge jump between being "tech-savvy" and having the know how to run a complex content management system capable of getting an entire paper (for the most part) online daily. Those upstanding tech-savvy journos at the O must not work at the desk that codes stories, as that incredibly simple task is screwed up on a daily basis. As far as grammatical errors and "substantiative merit" goes: pot, say hello to kettle. I wrote the Oregonian vs. OregonLive comment. I don't work for either entity and never have, so I'm neither pot nor kettle - I'm just a reader who did some asking around after some frustrating experiences trying to use the online classifieds (which do seem to work now), and some particularly egregious spelling, grammatical, and factual errors in the OregonLive blogs, which I initially thought came from The Oregonian. I'm sure you're right about the coding - my guess is it's not prioritized by the section editors, and assigned to the clerks as kind of an afterthought. I know there's been frustration and animosity on both sides over training and communication issues. Maybe an in-house website division at the Oregonian would have solved the problem. As a second-choice option, maybe The Oregonian could have hired some more people with sufficient skills for your needs (if the paper wasn't bleeding newsroom employees, of course), or maybe OregonLive could have hired a couple of copy editors, so there could be better integration and less resentment. As it is, it seems like each entity is protecting its own little fiefdom, to the detriment and possible eventual destruction of both. Whether you like it or dislike it, The Oregonian is a strong brand in the region. The web site arrangement makes me think whoever is making decisions knows very little about branding and how to extend an existing brand into new media. Post new comment |
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Advance.net, which owns several newspaper sites, has already changed the New Orleans site.
www.nola.com
The site is actually in New Jersey, nor Oregon.