Comments on: Take a look at the new CNN.com in beta

By: George McMahon

George McMahon — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:03:32 +0000

The new CNN.com looks horrible. There are either fewer news stories or they’ve placed them in areas unbeknownst to me. I think I’ll be getting my news from elsewhere from now on.

By: Andrew Sand

Andrew Sand — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 14:39:22 +0000

Awesome! Love it! My guess is some creative genius, perhaps like……Lila Eidi…..helped on this project. Great job everyone!

By: Steve Safran

Steve Safran — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:20:24 +0000

I amend my above comment a touch - they do have that video icon thing. It just wasn’t next to any of the stories when I visited the page initially. I saw a smattering just now. Good to see.

By: thom

thom — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:51:21 +0000

I really like the idea of integration of video and galleries on the story pages. I’ll have to live with it for a while to decide whether I like the implementation.

I like the shorter list of sections on the horizontal nav (did anyone ever go to the auto section?) and the hot topics.

But I’m not a fan of the aesthetic. I like minimal, but the fonts feel old to me with too much bold and too many sizes. Red is too strong a color to be the main color element.

That main list of stories is far to long to be scannable. I miss the list of headlines from the sections. In general the home page and the section pages seem unorganized to me. what is going in that huge feeback spot?

I don’t understand why they need to stretch the video either, but I really like the fact that they are trying to integrate it instead of forcing into a video ghetto. I never liked Pipeline and the old video player was very dated. But on the video page they took out the itunes like browsing with multiple sorts — which was the best part of that player.

By: thedetroitchannel

thedetroitchannel — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:36:12 +0000

come to think of it, if they now are putting their content under the tab ‘US news’ rather than in the Local section, do you think they finally began to agree that there is money to be made from out-of-market eyes?

there are a few who’ve argued that for quite some time.

By: thedetroitchannel

thedetroitchannel — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:25:02 +0000

regarding ‘UPDATE’: if you clickon the US news tab ALL the stories are from ib affiliates. “north, south east and west”.

there will be a great way to monetize out-of-market visitors. you know that.

By: liz

liz — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:44:38 +0000

i love, love, love their tabbed story pages. they really bring attention to the multimedia elements.

i don’t like how they did away with the lists of category top stories.

my only complaint: more white space. (kidding on that one)

By: thedetroitchannel

thedetroitchannel — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:34:49 +0000

i hope i didn’t sound negative.

i simply sought to answer what cory wrote was “unclear”.

sorry if i offended anyone.

By: Michael Rosenblum

Michael Rosenblum — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:30:57 +0000

In a word: Ungepatch.
Just as jumbled and crowded as before, but with bigger font. For the aging viewership no doubt. Are there no radical approaches t this? Its always the same, just minor fixes. Really minor.

By: MSM

MSM — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:22:40 +0000

Wow. So much white space.

So clean.

So simple

So like MSNBC.com.

Some lead.

Others follow.

By: Safran

Safran — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:54:52 +0000

This is a breakthrough, and I predict it will serve as a template for more sites. We’ve been calling this the “Year of the Cleanup,” and CNN’s another great example of how TV sites are embracing the philosophy.

If I could make one suggestion, it would be this: don’t segregate the videos solely to their own section. A story should have a video/text icon next to it to tell me what choices I have. I shouldn’t have to go to a separate section to find video versions. Just put that little video icon next to the stories that have associated video, and it’s a home run.

(Also, CNN.com’s insistence on the 16×9 stretching of their own 4×3 video remains one of the great mysteries in my life.)

Still, I don’t want to seem in the least big negative here - full credit where it’s due. I used to point to the current CNN site as a good example of how to clean up your act. This iteration is the logical next step. (I can only hope this means an end to those horrible, horrible mortgage ads.)

Let’s see some USAToday.com - style interactivity now!

By: thedetroitchannel

thedetroitchannel — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:32:12 +0000

if the local section is powered by topix (which when i entered a nearby zip code it showed as) the ib deal is nowhere near exclusive.

good for the user.

not so for the local affil.

correct me if i’m wrong.

By: Swift Loris

Swift Loris — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:26:19 +0000

I usually find myself hating news site redesigns–they seem only to get messier, clunkier, more crowded, more gimmicky. This, in contrast, is clean, simple, easy to navigate, well organized–a vast improvement over CNN’s current site. Don’t give me creative aesthetic touches and fancy graphics; I want functionality, please. I don’t care if it’s “dull” as long as I can find what I want.