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* The old Sun-Times website was clunky, slow and cluttered. I hated it. But I made the mistake of thinking it couldn’t get any worse with the rumored redesign.
The Sun-Times is and always has been a columnist’s newspaper. It has a long history of columnists breaking news and wielding enormous influence on the city’s life, whether in politics, sports, culture or business. But the only way to discover which columnist is in the paper today is to either click on each and every columnist’s name or actually pick up the dead tree edition and then use that as a guide. That’s totally ridiculous.
Yes, I’m a Sun-Times columnist. And, yes, I have a blog that regularly depends on Sun-Times columns for content. But I’m also an avid column reader, and not just political columns. I like to know what’s going on in other topics as well. And this redesign just makes it practically impossible to figure that out. What the heck were they thinking?
Today’s columnists should be on the site’s front page, with a headline, a pic and an excerpt. The list of columnists should also have an indication of who has published a recent piece. The same goes for the blog page. This isn’t brain surgery here. It’s common freaking sense. You push your most recent entries to the fore. That’s pretty standard stuff.
The site’s front page went from being overly cluttered to having not nearly enough information. The redesign is a needless overreaction and it will cost that paper dearly. Why have all that content which nobody can see without Herculean effort? What a stupid, stupid move. Whatever they paid for that redesign, it was way too much.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:03 pm
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Thank you Rich for saying it, I agree 100%, it is much more difficult to find the columns and articles I like to read. The old site used to at least have links to all the news articles, this one doesn’t, and even if you get to the columnists pages, there is no indication if they have new content or not. The only good thing is there are RSS feeds for columns now.
There is also way too much white space and too few photos.
They should go back to the old format until they can get it right.
Comment by Lincoln Parker Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:07 pm
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed this. Thanks for pointing it out. No wonder print media is going bankrupt. They STILL can’t even figure out how to properly incorporate the internet.
Comment by Helm Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:10 pm
Thank you!! I was beginning to think I was the only person who had a problem with it. The trouble continues on the mobile site as well. It only lists headlines. If you’re looking for something specific there is no search engine and no idea who the author of the piece is!
Comment by Annoyed Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:13 pm
It looks like the same platform that the Gatehouse papers are using.
Comment by lost in translation Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:16 pm
I was going to say the same thing. I don’t want to click 85 times to see what each columnist wrote. their blogs-which in the case of sweet is quite good are totally emasculated. there’s no new media on there-they could find an intern to blog the mayors race with video and aldermanic stuff. It’s like 1995 only worse because you can’t find anything. Look at washingtonpost or new york times or wall street journal.com, videos, stuff is out there. real journalism at work.
the tribune site is just as bad, disorganized and retro.
their failure however is to the gain of this site which means I can save myself the time of looking there and reading here.
Comment by shore Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:16 pm
The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the redesign is that some columnists (except Ebert) are in for a haircut or are going to be shown the door.
Back in the day, I did some marketing for the Sun-Times, and the paper’s USP was columnists. They were the whole marketing effort. It’s their bread-and-butter.
The fact that they’re now hidden on the website leads one to believe that there are some changes to come. How many gossip columnists do you need? What do Roeper and Steinberg bring to the party, except flogging their other projects? They don’t even write actual columns — just a stew of three or four random meanderings.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:17 pm
===leads one to believe that there are some changes to come===
I think you’re reading too much into it. There has been no indication yet from the top that things will change. I think they just didn’t think this through at all. And that was a huge mistake.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:19 pm
===It looks like the same platform that the Gatehouse papers are using. ===
If it was, I wouldn’t have complained. That one is far superior.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:20 pm
I completely agree. The Sun-Times big advantage over the Trib. is its columnists. They need to be easy to access.
Comment by centrist Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:21 pm
Brings the format in line with the new, awful Daily Herald design. I swear that they never bother to ask someone who actually uses their web site. The SunTimes now joins the ranks of sites you need to bookmark multiple locations on the site so you don’t have to click multiple times on the home page.
But, as bad as it is, it’s nowhere near as bad as the Illinois State Board of Elections. Now THAT site drives me nuts.
Comment by Cincinnatus Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:21 pm
Remember, the website is free. Maybe they are setting up to charge for a column if you want to read it. More likely, Word is right and the axe is about to swing. Watch for the ranks of adjunct faculty at Medill and Columbia to swell even larger with more washed up reporters and columnists trying to do something, anything to eat and pay the rent.
Comment by Bill Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:24 pm
I agree with every, single word in Cincinnatus’ comment.
I did my own horrific redesign a year ago without consulting any actual readers. Man, what a mistake that was. I’ll never do it again. Owners don’t always know best, and I found that out the hard way.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:27 pm
I have never seen a worse web site for a newspaper. Ever.
The Trib’s is bad, but at least it looks somewhat professional.
The gold standard is the New York Times web site. I’m surprised other papers don’t just copy it’s easy-to-find-and-navigate features.
Comment by Upstate Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:31 pm
Usually, I think news sites provide enough open space, so they look too cluttered. Here it’s the opposite problem. There way too much white space, but not enough meaty content. Like the print edition, it feels like it is mostly ads. In fact, it resembles one of those generic sites that aggregates content from other legitimate news, but has no substance of its own and is loaded with google ads and crap like that. It’s actually worse than the Daily Herald design…at least they have some kind of rotating graphic at the top to serve as a sort of “centerpiece”…on the Sun-Times site, the content is very muted and totally takes a backseat to the ads.
Comment by PFK Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:41 pm
OK, so it wasn’t just me who noticed.
Comment by Niles Township Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:47 pm
Excellent post. I read the sun-times to read the columnists-most of them on a good day at least. I don’t want to have to click-thru link after link to see telander’s new column.
Comment by the gimmees Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:49 pm
Well said. New site is WAY too dumbed down, even for a dumbed down newspaper industry.
Comment by just sayin' Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:51 pm
I was hoping the ST site was still “under construction”. If this is what was intended to be the final result then it is horribly unfriendly to users and quite unattractive to look at. Unnecessary website redesign and logo redesign (ala GAP’s recent fiasco which they immediately undid) is the very last place struggling companies should be spending precious resources in this business climate.
Comment by Responsa Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:52 pm
YES! that’s it. it’s been driving me nuts trying to find things, dazzled by how nice it looks but how badly it drives. Please send an email to a list of important colleagues and the link to our comments so we can speak for you and for ourselves.
for those of us who still love the actual newspaper, and still buy it, we also want to find that print content in electronic links, perhaps to share with others. making that easy to do is important, sharing the actual work with others helps the Sun Times. Please help us help the Sun Times share the work! Change the site!
Comment by amalia Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:55 pm
Wow - even when you hover the mouse over the “Columnist” tabs, no names appear, just one sole sublink tab to “Blogs.” UGH! And I’ve always prefered the Sun-Times to the Trib, regardless of ownership/ideology, because of the livelier columnists.
Comment by lake county democrat Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 2:58 pm
They must read this - I just went to the site and the columnist link is back at the top and when you click on it you get a list of columnists and their photos - and once you choose your columnist, the old columns are listed as well.
Comment by cynically anonymous Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 3:07 pm
That hasn’t changed today, CA. There’s still nothing that shows who wrote what today.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 3:11 pm
Agree agree agree.
Comment by soccermom Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 3:15 pm
I know it’s a Trib paper - but the L.A. Times gets it. They have a ton of info that is easily accessible - and, bonus points for finding a way to tastefully incorporate advertising. AND - lots of shiny pictures and graphics, the real key to getting and keeping readers. The new CS-T site honestly reminds me of my high school paper - in 1999…
Comment by S. Grobnilk Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 3:24 pm
It seems odd to me that Paige Wiser isn’t listed as a columnist. She’s stuck under television. She’s the the best columnist they have.
The Sun-Times raised it’s price to $2.00 today for those of us outside Chicago. Chicago stayed the same at $.75 cents. I can get the NY Times for $2.00,and just by=uy the Trib.
Comment by Tom Joad Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 4:12 pm
Yes! Yes! I assumed it was all for the sake of click counts, but the result is that I’ve simply stopped reading the S-T website. I’ll get you here, and Roger Ebert on twitter, and Carol Marin on Facebook. But that will be it.
Comment by Ann Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 4:22 pm
The Trib site opens in about 3 seconds; the NYTimes in about 3 seconds; CapFax in about 3 seconds-at a minute and a half I gave up on the Sun Times. I am on a Mac using Safari and have a T-1 internet connection. The ST site has always been slow but this is nuts. I can’t imagine I am the only one with the problem.
Comment by What's in a name? Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 4:55 pm
The CS-T site was down early this morning, but appears to be loading properly now.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 5:08 pm
At least the S-T site still loads vvveeerrryyy sssslllooowwwlllyyy.
– MrJM
Comment by MrJM Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 5:50 pm
The mobile site is — if this is even possible — much, much worse. It used to be vastly superior to the Trib, though still goofy relative to NYT. Just copy the freakin’ Times site if you have to.
Comment by vibes Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 6:23 pm
My fave newspaper websites are the Washington Post, NY Times and LA Times. I don’t bookmark; I use RSS feeds on my igoogle homepage.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 8:30 pm
I am going to do something completely different and agree with Rich. When I go to the commentary section, they list the columnists but only “recent column.” The recent column should have at minimum a title and date.
Yes the old website would be slow and annoy me, but I would still go to it. The new site has only ensured I to to the Tribune website where I can get the information in a coherent manner- I mean other than on the Capitol Fax website:)
Comment by Richard Afflis Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 8:35 pm
Let me join the chorus in bashing the new Web site’s poor construction. Put the day’s columnists on the home page.
Comment by Norseman Monday, Dec 13, 10 @ 8:38 pm
Got a taste of it when the Herald News website switched over, terrible. Then when the SunTimes one did, it is just an awful, awful design.
Comment by Concerned Voter Tuesday, Dec 14, 10 @ 8:03 am
I thought I was the only one who hated the new design. They can do better - was this the ‘low bidder’?
Comment by return to the way it was Tuesday, Dec 14, 10 @ 8:35 am
I must have caught them a couple of weeks ago, while they were still switching over to the new site because I saw it late at night, and then the old site was back the following morning. What a relief that was. I thought that it might have been a backup site for some IT disaster recovery program. Oh well.
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 14, 10 @ 9:06 am
Thanks for pointing this out Rich. The mobile site is now absolutely unreadable on my Blackberry, with type too small to keep on the screen and read, as well as terrible organization.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 14, 10 @ 9:23 am
With the exception of the Southtown, all the other S-T papers have been using this format for the past couple months. You’re right Rich, it does suck.
After one gets through the top stories and clicks on the boxed number two on the bottom, one gets a list of stories that either aren’t considered “hot” news or appeared in previous editions. Problem is, the dates that accompany the headlines are usually wrong. Therefore, one has no idea whather a story appeared today, yesterday or last Easter.
Shazam!
Comment by The Mad Hatter Tuesday, Dec 14, 10 @ 12:47 pm
I had the same reaction and sent them an email. No response.
Comment by Andy Martin Tuesday, Dec 14, 10 @ 3:50 pm