I've long enjoyed The Onion, the font of satirical news, and I admire their web site--it feels like a newspaper, but its online. I don't know what it looked like before, but it was rewritten in August 2005 using Drupal by a Manhattan firm called Behavior. The principal of Behavior was then Khoi Vihn, one of the early advocates (with Mark Boulton) of grid-based web page design. Khoi graciously shared his Onion designs with the world and then explained the grid that makes it seem tidy.
In "Making New Fake News," Vihn says the challenge became "how to create a site that might pass for a legitimate news organization on the level of The New York Times or The Washington Post." Later, he writes, "If the results look suspiciously like a green [The Onion's signature color] version of The New York Times Online, it's because we spent a lot of time studying how the Gray Lady delivers news--but I like to think we were conscientious enough not to steal crassly."
I have also admired the design of the New York Times online for many years, and now I know why: four months after The Onion's new site debuted, Vihn became the Design Director for the NYTimes.com. He's been there since early 2006, as I learned from "Black, White and Read Online," an article from last June.
In an unrelated story, as they say, I also came across Steve Buttry, who is not a designer, but rather the former editor of the Cedar Rapids [Iowa] Gazette. He is still associated with that newspaper as C3 Innovation Coach. C3 is his term: Complete Community Connection. He described his vision in a blog post from April 27, 2009.
For readers, C3 is to be "their essential connection to community life--news, information, commerce, social life." C3 is intended to be essential to businesses, too, "often making the sale and collecting the money." Buttry's goal is to displace Google as the go to site for his community. Urging Gazette Communications to think grandly, he says "We need to change from producing new material for one-day consumption in the print product or half-hour consumption in the broadcast product."
Buttry gets it--news is important but it shouldn't limit a community site. He wants them to "add to our information storehouse daily with news and other information" while staying open to other opportunities. Cautioned by a professor that change is scary, Buttry says "I can think of nothing more scary for our industry than failure to reach far enough or change thoroughly enough."
He says that, but he quickly reverts, in the same blog post, to "We will serve other people...[by] producing and delivering their morning paper and their evening newscast..." Sigh. Has he not read (or read and not believed) Clay Shirky? I'm sure he hasn't read my blog, such as this from last June:
The next question, "What is the best way to communicate these items to everyone in town?" has an obvious answer. Who in their right mind would suggest printing thousands of copies of the items on literally tons of paper, then hiring people to deposit them on every doorstep? A bundle of newspapers on the curb waiting to be distributed may evoke nostalgia, but it also represents a significant and needless environmental impact from depleted forests to burgeoning landfills.
Save the trees, save the landfill, and serve the community first and Gazette Communications will survive, Mr. Buttry. He is focused on not missing opportunities, particularly in mobile and email, RSS, Twitter, social media, iPod, game device, GPS, or some other device--he sounds like he's writing a patent application, trying to cover everything he can think of and more.
A good community news site can introduce people to their neighbors, and a blog by, for example, a past mayor, might draw a sizable audience. But when Buttry says it, it sounds forced and commercial: "The C3 will help people form personal connections with our staff and each other similar to the personal connections they feel to Beth Malicki, Bruce Aune and other KCRG anchors. They will feel as if they know people they have never met, ranging from the bloggers they follow to moms or sports fans they connect with through our network."
My problem with that is that I've watched my share of local news on television. I'd rather hear from a Realtor. TV's talking heads aren't really in the community doing things--no offense to Beth and Bruce, et al. A good editor is vital, highlighting important news with a compelling headline, or moving the boring detail lower to improve a story's scan. Talking heads are not editors.
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