Newsweek.com goes it alone off MSNBC platform

Don Day October 18th, 2007

Newsweek.com has left the MSNBC.com nest, and is now going it alone. The new site is clean, easy-to-navigate and a much better fit for the newsmagazine content type than the more daily news-focused MSNBC framework. The magazine’s popular Conventional Wisdom Watch is now up front and above the fold, with arrows to switch between items. The content is smartly organized by theme, and video, photos and audio are given big play.

The Top Ten strip along the bottom of the site features the most popular items, and a simple slider allows you to change the metric from past 12 hours to past 7 days. Throughout the site, a “clip this” icon appears, allowing you to embed or link the material to a variety of platforms - including Google, Facebook, MySpace etc (image at right). A flash flipper lets you go back to covers for the past 2 years or so - and click to read the cover story.

Overall, the site is packed full of new ideas and widgets - and is now easily one of my favorite national news site designs.

Newsweek and MSNBC.com are still working together - but the ties aren’t nearly as obvious as they once were. If you enter the magazine’s site via a link off MSNBC.com, you’re given a blue MSNBC tab along the tab, but if you enter any other way, the MSNBC tab isn’t there.