You know from my sidebar that I keep a dynamic list of good news media websites. Some of the examples are newspaper websites, there are a couple of news aggregators on there, and few stand alone news sites. They all exhibit something unique and compelling which makes me go back to them over and over again. Here I break down why I think the following sites are Great Newspaper Website Examples.
Click image to see larger size
The Las Vegas Sun – I would say that this is THE BEST newspaper site in America however, it is not a traditional newspaper. Only a smaller version of the site is printed and distributed, as an insert, in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Still, this site kicks ass. It utilizes multimedia news reporting throughout the site, not just features. You’ll notice in the pictures above that the the front page changes every day, there are no rigid templates. The site uses Django and the Ellington CMS to do this as well as the genius of Rob Curley.
———————————————————————–
EveryBlock – from the site, “EveryBlock filters an assortment of local news by location so you can keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city”. This is an incredibly powerful site that mashes up civic data, news and blog entries, flickr photos, yelp reviews, craigslist lost and founds, etc…
This site shows what can be done at newspaper websites IF they began hiring and unleashing top notch developers on their websites. EVERY single bit of data on EveryBlock is dynamic, linking to more and more detail as you click. The map is linked to all this data, it’s ridiculous how cool the integration of all the data is on this site.
Newspapers talk a lot about the decline in serendipitous information as more and more people migrate away from print newspapers to use the internet like “the daily me”. EveryBlock crushes that notion by serving up data and content in such a unique way that you are constantly stumbling upon new content.
LA Times Django Database- The California Metrolink crash on September 12, 2008 was covered by The LA Times website with a Django powered database. The database was up and running in only 3 hours once the decision was made to utilize it. I commend Megan Garvey, morning Metro assignment editor and Ben Welsh, database producer, for the outstanding job they did in reporting this tragedy.
I urge you to go and see the database as it is now. Notice how all the fields are dynamic. Notice the care given to the delicate nature of the story. More than 1million people have viewed the page in less than a week and more than 2 thousand people have left comments for the victims.
The speed at which this database was created and the dynamic use of the content really makes this piece stand out among anything else going on in newspapers right now. Lets not wait for another tragedy before trying something new again.
NPR – National Public Radio’s website doesn’t use new development hacks to present users with compelling content, what they do is… provide their users with compelling content. Sure their print stories are great, but it’s their radio and podcast offerings that really deliver. NPR is partnered with 860 independently operated, noncommercial public radio stations. NPR produces and distributes more than 130 hours of original programming each week.
While other news organizations downsized over the past several years, NPR News added reporters, correspondents, and offices worldwide, and now gathers and produces content from some 36 locations around the world. All that content is served up not only via terrestrial and digital radio, but also on the NPR website via live program streams, hourly newscasts, and downloadable podcasts.
UPDATE:
Visit Part 2 for news blogs and news aggregators.
The Bivings Report has their own ideas of what makes a good newspaper site. THERE is no overlap between us!
Related posts: