Website wars heating up!!! KATU = NEW

Submitted by drchaps on Mon, 09/11/2006 - 10:55pm.

I looked around and didn't see another post on this. K2 looks to give the new KOIN.com some competition with its new and improved website.


katu.com screenshot

I see it is built for those with higher resolution screens, so if you live in the days of 640x480 good luck to you. Some things of note... Video on this site is the youtube type, one click on the screen and it plays. No more having to view a pop up just to see a news story.

Navigation also is horizontal rather than vertical now. Personally I like it much better, as it has cleaner lines and less table borders. And hey, they have a new staff page too, with bigger pictures! http://www.katu.com/about/people

Is this a small sign of the things to come from the new ND?? Me likey if so. Something of note is that maybe the new ND has some power seperate from Fisher as I see their websites are still the same.

[Edited to insert provided graphic, clean up/reduce the graphic, and link it back to katu.com. No criticism intended, it just adds some color to the story. Thanks for grabbing the screenshot.--L]

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drchaps's blog | quote
( topics: )
Good lookin'
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 12:06am.

I'm talking about the website AND the women. The bigger they are, the better they look. KATU's got the best looking crew now that Nicole Doll is gone. As for the website, it's so much more professionally looking and easy to use.

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HA!
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 9:50am.

Is this a joke comment?
What is this, 1955?

Deb is the only one worth a second look anyway.

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KATU.com looks nice now!
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 1:23am.

Even though it's of the cookie-cutter variety, it now has
the cleanest look in town. Now if they can only match KGW.com's
breaking news coverage online...

Still not feeling KOIN.com

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Could new on-air graphics be next?
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 8:01am.

KOMO/Seattle rolled out its "updated" graphics package yesterday - adding some red to the white and blue scheme. Still the same terrible Fisher website, however.

Maybe the graphics are a sign of what's to come for KATU?

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KOMO's tweaked graphics
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 2:03pm.

KOMO's 'new' graphics package looks pretty darn ugly.
Hopefully they don't send any of that down to KATU.

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It's
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 10:11am.

For the love of god please correct your apostrophe in "it's"
Thank you.

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one way to remember
Submitted by LynnS on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 12:38pm.

Just think of the "It's" guy from Monty Python:

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Lynn Siprelle * Fairy Blogmother

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For the love of God. Get a
Submitted by drchaps on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 12:41pm.

For the love of God, learn how to correctly use grammer yourself. Capitalizing "Thank you" when not ending a sentence is just as poor my hypocritical little anon.

Quick props to Lynn who was able to integrate the screen cut I made. I didn't even think about lowering the size and posting it within the thread, but that was a damn good idea.

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no problem
Submitted by LynnS on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 3:01pm.

Thanks for taking the screen shot.
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Lynn Siprelle * Fairy Blogmother

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People living in glass houses
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 4:41pm.

For the love of God, learn how to spell. It is grammar not grammer.

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Grammer?
Submitted by fivecook on Wed, 09/13/2006 - 12:15am.

For the love of God, please learn how to spell "grammer." (It's "grammar.") Unless you're talking about your mother's mother, or a town in Indiana.

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Kelsey Grammer?
Submitted by drchaps on Wed, 09/13/2006 - 6:41am.

Kelsey Grammer?

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Nice to see my love getting all these props.
Submitted by Zamboni on Wed, 09/13/2006 - 8:00am.

Sincerely,

God (with help from Zamboni)

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I Thought That
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 2:47pm.

It's = combo of it & is (it is)
Its = when "it" possesses something

So when you talk about KOMO's website, Its should *not* have an apostrophe since it "owns" the website?

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you are correct
Submitted by LynnS on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 3:13pm.

And the original correcting corrector is not. In this instance, "its" is proper. (My graphic comment was simply about a mnemonic device one might use. :) )

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Lynn Siprelle * Fairy Blogmother

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"Still sloppy"
Submitted by LynnS on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 7:35pm.

MetBlogs weighs in on all the recent redesigns.

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Lynn Siprelle * Fairy Blogmother

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KATU Sales Morale Problem
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Tue, 09/12/2006 - 10:18pm.

The new KATU.COM still won't mask the real problem there....the sales department. The bulk of the dough still comes from spot sales, and the best website in town won't help the bottom line It's still all about selling spots, and making dough.

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LOL! You can tell producers frequent the boards here :)
Submitted by TheDynamo on Wed, 09/13/2006 - 1:27pm.

6 posts on grammar but barely anything about the website.

I rather like the redesign of KATU's website. It's a hell of a lot easier on the eyes than news sites tend to be.

A good rule someone taught me was content means nothing if nobody can read it. Fortunately it seems that news sites are beginning to listen. :)

==========
Ex/Fisher(KATU) employee since 2003
Persnickity Viewer since birth

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K2 News
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Thu, 09/14/2006 - 7:40pm.

What's interesting about the discussions here of K2 is it's all about cosmetic graphic changes and what's happening to the web presence. Not a word about the quality of journalism [shoddy] they practice or where they - as a news department - are headed [ultimately down].

K2 is a second rate television station with a bottom-dollar owner and mediocre management. Hmmm....sounds like the 'gulag on Columbia.' K2 will stumble along for a couple of years but we all know there is no vision from management on Sandy or hq up in Seattle. They've lost the war before they've even started the battle.

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Besides Belo, what do we
Submitted by drchaps on Fri, 09/15/2006 - 9:45am.

Besides Belo, what do we have here as first rate news coverage then? I think KATU at least tries to compete in this market which is much more than I can say from what I've seen as KOIN (Cancelling a newscast of all things).

Graphics and flashiness sells a lot in this world, don't be surprised if you see an uptick because of the new improved website.

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i like it
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 09/13/2006 - 9:40pm.

and KATU doesnt make you register. if they have KGW style breaking news they will be good. but kgw has dedicated reporters on their website. we will see.

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I nominate... Nick Winkler
Submitted by drchaps on Thu, 09/14/2006 - 6:30am.

I nominate...

Nick Winkler for best Portland news name and new KATU web reporter.

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Best news name aside he was
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 1:34pm.

Best news name aside he was the best reporter in Oklahoma City. We're sad to see him go.

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Metroblog
Submitted by drchaps on Thu, 09/14/2006 - 6:33am.

You know, the one thing I noticed thanks to Metroblog was the pop up if viewing any video but the top story. I'm wondering if they couldn't use an iframe for the video section and do a playlist setup similar to msn.

I'm sure it's gotta cost a fortune for it, but in my opinion being able to stream the noon news or viewing my choice of story on the main page would be a huge draw to me and would make me go there over KGW almost anytime (Sorry Katu, but you guys need to beef up that breaking news just a little bit).

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The CDUB
Submitted by drchaps on Thu, 09/14/2006 - 6:48am.

One more little post...

Tribune changed the logo and subdomain to Portland's CW here as well overnight. www.portlandscw.com

Now since we are on the grammar (Hey, I got it right this time) gravytrain, why name it "Portland's The CW?" I would prefer something like The CW: Portland, or The CW of Portland. Hell, even Portland's CW without "the" in the title would be much improved and wouldn't sound so juvenile. But I guess if you are going after my age bracket most don't have an IQ over 80 :). Airbrush the thing before it irritates me to no end please!

As well, did anyone know of any call letter changes for KWBP? I see Zap2It's listing for KWBP showing up as KRCW now...

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KATU new site all sugar without substance
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Thu, 09/14/2006 - 12:14pm.

They did away with general user access to ap stories so one could pick the news they want rather than having it filtered as 'most popular'.

More info, not less please.

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KATU Sales Morale Problem is
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Thu, 09/14/2006 - 6:11pm.

KATU Sales Morale Problem is putting it lightly!!! Internet Sales Director left for a better job a few weeks ago.

Joanne James has no clue on Internet or Local Sales!!

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Metroblog kibitzes re: KATU.com
Submitted by LynnS on Mon, 09/25/2006 - 8:52pm.

Aaron says don't bother with KATU.com. Why? Because while

http://www.katu.com

goes to the Dub's website,

http://katu.com

does not. Which is, admittedly, a little sloppy on the IT side. For comparison's sake, http://kgw.com, http://kptv.com and heck, even http://koin.com all resolve correctly.

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Lynn Siprelle * Fairy Blogmother

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redirect
Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Fri, 10/20/2006 - 3:22pm.

Yes it does. Sloppy on your end.

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a month later, yeah
Submitted by LynnS on Fri, 10/20/2006 - 5:39pm.

Check the time stamps on this thread. This was nearly a month ago. It did not redirect then. Good for them they got it fixed.

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Lynn Siprelle * Fairy Blogmother

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