In the midst of the Star Tribune's slow-motion devolution, I couldn't help noticing a major change to its home page.
The area shown here is just below the name of the site and its main navigation. In other words, this is the most important content on the site right at the moment -- the part that is traditionally considered to be "above the fold."
What do we have? Maybe 25 percent news, confined to one column in the middle of the page, all in pretty small text sizes, with no photos.
Dominating the page is a rotating photo feature that switches among photos of the cutest pooch, something about wine bars, and a piece on Clint Eastwood (among other things. Click on either Strib image for a larger version.) The cute pooch gets extra play because it's the most popular item on the entire site, and is featured in a little ad at lower right.
In contrast, the Pioneer Press's home page above the fold is almost all news, including a news photo:
And just for comparison, here's the New York Times. Gee, I guess Israel is sending ground forces into Gaza. Hmmm:
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Star Tribune Goes to the Dogs
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3 comments:
Ugh. The Star Tribune website keeps going downhill. I noticed their new front page about a week ago, and my first impression was, well, "that sucks!".
I also really dislike it when they do the tiled advertisements as a background to the front page. Yuck. I've seen it a couple times, and probably even have some screen shots I could share.
D#3,
Tee-hee!
My cartoon certainly ain't news. There is no reason for you to apologize for stating that.
I'm kinda amazed the Pioneer Press gives the cartoon that much play on its Web front page. But they just do that on weekends, when there is less real, new news to post. (Either the world generates less news on weekends or there are fewer reporters working on weekends -- maybe both reasons are true.)
As for neither of the local papers playing up international events, well, as you noticed, the New York Times has got that territory covered. And the New York Times is but a few clicks away.
However, if you want news of Minneapolis or Saint Paul, the mighty New York Times won't help you out much -- the StarTrib and the PiPress are the places to go.
--David
I noticed the grossness of the Strib's new design too and have since switched over to the Pi Press! (And the NYT, as always.)
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