Online news design - awful or brilliant?
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After I wrote the article "Breaking the rules in news design" I became aware of the similarity in design of Scandinavian news sites (check them out below!) thanks to the commenters, and I wondered what other trends may be apparent across sites in different parts of the world, if any.
So I took a bunch of screenshots (29), gathered some (rough) stats and posted them all below. The list of sites is by no means an exhaustive catalogue of contemporary news design, merely a sample of what is currently out there in late 2006.
There were a few interesting findings. The Scandinavian sites really are in a different league as far as size and content goes. Compared to more 'traditional' front pages, their front pages run to ~7000-9000px vs ~2300px, they have ~500 links vs 2-300, and around 50 feature images (!) vs <10 on other sites. For the other sites, Google News had the only liquid layout. Australia's two primary media outlets share a very similar design (probably due to Peter Ottery's hand in both). Indonesia's Kompas gets a dishonourable mention for using frames to run fixed ads at the top and bottom of the window!
Anyway, check them out, make sure you see the Scandinavian sites, and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Clicking on an image takes you to the site.
- CNN
- New York Times
- Washington Post
- USA TODAY
- Los Angles Times
Canada
- CBC
Australia
- Sydney Morning Herald
- News.com.au
Sport
- ESPN
- Sports Illustrated
New Media
- Google News
- Yahoo News
- Newsvine
- Digg
International
- International Herald Tribune
- Reuters
- BBC News
- The Sun
- Times (UK)
- Guardian Unlimited
Norway
- Aftenposten
- Dagbladet
- VG Nett
Sweden
- Expressen
China
- China Daily
- Beijing Today
Frace
- Le Monde
Indonesia
- Kompas
Middle East
- Al Jazeera
US/Canada
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Sport
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New Media
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International
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UK
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Australia
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Norway/Sweden
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China
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Various
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News design is a tricky art, primarily because it runs head first into one of the oldest limitations of the web: packing maximum content into limited real estate. Designers also have to deal with advertising committments, internal politics, a constantly evolving site and a fast paced publishing environment. Aesthetics is often eshewed for functionalism, and the mighty blue link dominates just about every front page.
However after a quick tour across some of the world's leading news sites, what do you make of the current state of online news design? Post your thoughts in the comments below!
Comments
Nice research, but i think u should too pickup the news from Brazil, like
http://www.oglobo.com / http://www.odia.com.br / http://www.jb.com.br
And others in south america too. they quite different as well.
- Jonathas Scott on 05 December 2006
There is more news from Sweden like DN http://www.dn.se, SVD, http://www.svd.se, SVT/Nyheter http://www.svt.se/nyheter/, E24, http://www.e24.se, Resume, http://www.resume.se and last Aftonbladet, http://www.aftonbladet.se
and some polish to Zycie Warszawy - wiadomoĊci, http://www.zw.com.pl
- Thomas on 05 December 2006
Another interesting stat that may be worth adding is number of ads (image-based). I count 15 on the NYTimes home page (not including 3 or 4 self-referential ads) to only 9 original (content-based) images.
- Andy on 05 December 2006
Expressen.se is the only News online from Sweden that you have.
- Thomas on 05 December 2006
Very interesting article (although dated) about the news reading habits in Sweden)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3553279.stm
- Alan on 05 December 2006
I spent 12 years in the newspaper industry and 5 specifically in the New Media area.
It is very important to watch the ads, espcially position and size.
Many heated discussions occur over the ad positioning and size, especially in regards to the home page.
What always made me wonder was when editors would vigorously defend the front page… “that is not something (insert story, advertising, photo) we would place on the frontpage of the [insert publication here]”.
Yet they will put anything and everything on their web site front page. Why? I don’t think they see the internet for the medium it is.
- Christy on 06 December 2006
If you buy a paper, you have the whole thing, and odds are good you’ll be leafing through it, so ads can be put anywhere within it, leaving the front page for very high profile, high paying advertising, if any. With the web, however, the only guarantee you really have is that most of your readers will see your homepage. What readers do from there is harder to anticipate not to mention harder to sell to advertisers. So it makes sense that ads would litter the home page, it’s prime real estate.
- nleblanc on 07 December 2006
very nice round-up. Handy having the quick stats too. Obvious to see the traits of newspaper design being transferred to the web with the heavy use of serif fonts and colour black.
- James Broad on 05 December 2006