Virtually every morning since January of 2005, I have looked through the OC Register website while putting together the morning News Roundup. I have performed this daily task through at least two OCRegister.com re-designs, and I honestly cannot say if the site has gotten any better.
In some ways, it has gotten worse. It's increasingly common for me to look at the print edition later in the day and see a prominent news story that was virtually absent from the website:
The board will consider a proposal that would require the panel's president to decide whether proposed items should be placed on the agenda. A member can appeal the decision to the entire board if the president denies an item.
Today provides the most recent example. The lead story in the Local section of today's OC Register is a story on tonight's OUSD vote to squelch Trustees Rocco and Ledesma. It's right there -- front-and-center, top-of-the-fold with a big picture of Rocco in shades and knit cap. I just spotted it a few minutes ago while sitting down to lunch.
You'd think the story would be given equally prominent placement on the website.
You'd be wrong.
I went back to my computer and combed through OCRegister.com. I finally found the lead story of the Local section entombed in the City-by-City section as the second item under Orange & Villa Park.
Come on guys -- how difficult can it be to look at the final layout of the newspaper and have the news stories on the website conform in terms of story prominence? As more and more people get their news from the Internet, the Reg may want to organize its news website so a reader doesn't need forensic skills in order to excavate important news articles.
I agree! One of my gripes is that they have that pesky pop up indicating that the new search feature is really great. Yesterday I wanted to find an article in the Money section that I read in the paper version. No luck. I spent 15 minuetes with their new search feature searching and I could not find the article on line.
Posted by: Andy Favor | March 29, 2007 at 01:26 PM
Agreed. Their search engine is utterly useless for finding recent articles.
Posted by: Jubal | March 29, 2007 at 03:28 PM
I agree, the register's website lacks some of the features that are present on The LA Times or even the New York Times. The pop-under ads are obnoxious and it seems like the site is more geared towards assaulting the eyes with flash banner ads then the actual news itself.
Even the "Leave a comment" section led to problems for the Register. They had to add a self policing mechanism after the "trolls" hit the comment boards.
I still read the Register's Website, but I jump past the main page and head straight for the blogs.
Posted by: Michael Randall | March 29, 2007 at 06:33 PM
They do tend to shy away from anything controversial on the website's front page, but maybe I'm paranoid...or they are currying favor with their partners (reflected at the bottom of the page). Goodness knows, they have lost their base, for good.
And whatever you do, do NOT take the survey that pops up. They still think we can't figure out who's dropping tracking cookies on us.
Posted by: Pat | March 29, 2007 at 07:16 PM
Jubal, I completely agree with you on this matter, as someone else who also looks at the OC Register website. I can safely say that of the 80 + websites that I go to EVERY DAY to gather politics news, the OC Register's website is THE WORST. It's layout is hard to deal with, and most importantly, often times the website doesn't jibe with the print edition.
Posted by: Jon Fleischman | March 31, 2007 at 10:51 AM
I completely agree wtih Jubal and Jon,
I am actually a Certified Webmaster from an industry recognized certification system that focuses on design, programming and functionality. I also have a MBA with an emphasis on Computers and Electronic Commerce. And with all that, even I have trouble easily navigating through it.
Richard Rios
Posted by: Richard Rios | March 31, 2007 at 03:32 PM