I’ve decided as part of my site critiques blogs for this class to start going through some of the Web sites for the papers of my home state. So, I figured that I would start off with the site for my hometown newspaper, The (Cincinnati) Enquirer. The site, as part of Gannett’s increased emphasis on online content, has served as a testing ground for new concepts such as the “DataCenter,” according to a Gannett recruiter who I spoke to last spring.
The site has definitely evolved a lot during my time at UNC, and I get a lot more out of it than I did before I left for college. My biggest complaint is that the homepage of the site is cluttered and most of the text is too small. However, I do think that it is very smart that the site includes easy links for XML, podcasts, RSS and mobile alerts at the top (below the ads but above the lead stories). I think that people will increasingly look to options such as these in the future and that it’s important to play them up prominently.
Other changes that I like about the site are the inclusion of more videos, a GetLocal section and a GetPublished section. Gannett also owns the local weekly paper that serves my suburban neighborhood, so now I have access to those stories that interest me, as well as the citywide and statewide stories that I find compelling.
When I was running for editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s campus newpaper, last spring, I modeled part of my platform after the Enquirer site, namely the GetPublished section. I like this section because it creates an interactive forum for readers of The Enquirer. The newspaper doesn’t always have the resources to cover every little event, so, assuming that some editing and fact checking still occurs, this is a great venue to give the community more information.
There are a lot of questions as to whether this type of journalism is succeeding, but I think it’s definitely worth trying.
