Page One News

I've got a theory that visiting a web news publication is a bit like perusing which newspaper to buy in a newspaper rack -- you don't get/or want to look inside the publication to make a decision.

As I surf through the various online publications I relish in the modicum of diversity of design, even among the schools in JACC. I've already discussed in previous posts my concern about those schools who present their publications only as pdf downloads of the actual print edition. Nice for archiving, but not so reader friendly.

But what about those publications that incorporate a design where only SOME stories appear on the front page or have any display (such as headlines) on the front page. Most of those sites have navigational links to various news, opinion, sports, feature, entertainment, etc. sections, where you can find more stories or headlines. I wonder how many readers take the time to look on those section pages to see if there are any additional stories they might want to read.

I appreciate organization, but I suspect that the front page is where it's at. Publications that use a design that gets lots of stories or headline links on the front page work best. Top stories need to have some drawing power with summaries and photos, but give readers a good headline for each of the rest of the content.