Of course, since you’ve previously waxed visionary about your move to a web-based publishing/information company, I guess you’re in whole hog now.
And, you’re in so whole hog that Bob Mong has to again hit the “fluff” button on his computer for a new site roll-out piece.
That said, let’s take a more critical, more skeptical look at the redo.
One, Mong himself admitted they had to bump the font size from the original version because too many people were complaining about having too much trouble reading it. Oops.
Two, on dial-up Internet, it’s a LOT slower to load than the old version.
Three, new sections on the home page, such as “most popular stories”? That’s old hat. It’s been a couple of years since a paper like the New York Times has been doing that.
Four, I’m not sure that I would have an “offbeat” section there. It seems to put one more nail in the coffin of the News’ old claims to greatness.
Five, the top center area does look “cleaner” than before, as though the Web equivalent of using white space has been better applied.
Overall, it is something decent, I think. But, no, Bob, it isn’t the Second Coming. Of anything.
