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The New CNN.com (First Screenshots)

18 points by nreece 17y ago

JCThoughtscream 17y ago
It actually looks like a modern multimedia webpage now. I rather like it.
gbookman 17y ago
Each page seems to have less stuff on it than before, which is a good thing. Now it's much less cluttered and more logically organized.
staunch 17y ago
My #1 request from is that they give me the option of text/video for every article that has video. When I'm watching another video or listening to music I don't want to turn it off just to see the story. They don't appear to be fixing this.
- pmjordan 17y ago
  I suspect that video adverts are more profitable than banner/text ads.
matthodan 17y ago
Interesting to see that they put their logo in the center instead of the top left-- I think it's a little distracting, but maybe this will become a new trend.
- ugh 17y ago
  Logo in the center? Hm, I seem to know that from somewhere ... ah, yeah: http://www.zdf.de/ http://www.zdf.de/ (German public service broadcaster, redesign from May)
Mongoose 17y ago
I don't think they could have made it look more like Last.fm.
_ck_ 17y ago
Well they get points for honesty, the word "news" doesn't appear anywhere in their heading. But they have have a huge entertainment section. I guess they are the new MTV where the original meaning of their name has been lost, it's just branding for any content. (The only time I watch CNN anymore is before 9am when they have CNN Asia/Europe on which is actually real news.)
ComputerGuru 17y ago
I see they still haven't addressed the issue of providing their readers with real news: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=888251 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=888251
the_real_r2d2 17y ago
Well, it is better late than never. I do not know if they are going to do it, but it would be nice that you can customize it with your preferences about type of news (sports, politics, etc.), location, etc. For what I have read it includes many "social media" sources but it lacks in personalization. Some months ago the BBC also changed its web site to make it more "Web 2.0". You can personalize it at some level. For example local weather forecast, type of news, type of tv shows in the iPlayer, financial data, etc. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/
haydenchambers 17y ago
the inconsistancy between page templates is mindblowing
onewland 17y ago
While I don't like the quality of their news reporting, I think CNN is one of the few news entertainment companies that really understands web design and has a minimally coherent plan for integrating with the internet. A UX guy at my work was describing how the current design is used as almost a textbook example at a good tech school of a clean way of presenting information. Contrast that, for example, to nytimes.com which is literally designed to look as similar as possible to the newspaper. Like I said, their "journalism" is garbage but maybe some startup or media company can emulate their ability to create an interface that encourages users to explore.
- GBKS 17y ago
  Completely agree. The current design does a great job at "delivering the news" in a straightforward fashion with minimal user effort. The new design of the home page looks pretty interesting, I'll have to use it for a while to see how it works. First impression is too much imagery, not enough content and not enough content organization. Splitting content in text vs. video doesn't help to get a quick idea of what's going on in business/politics/local/... From recent experience, I'm not a big fan of CNN news reporting due to too many must-see "man bites dog" story, too many irrelevant "breaking news" and too much recycled content with new headlines slapped on. Reading CNN has mostly become a matter of figuring out what content is worth reading. The best redesign will not change this (unfortunately). Any guesses what "NewsPulse" will be? A real-time news aggregator?

18 points by nreece 17y ago

It actually looks like a modern multimedia webpage now. I rather like it.

Each page seems to have less stuff on it than before, which is a good thing. Now it's much less cluttered and more logically organized.

staunch 17y ago

My #1 request from is that they give me the option of text/video for every article that has video. When I'm watching another video or listening to music I don't want to turn it off just to see the story. They don't appear to be fixing this.

pmjordan 17y ago
I suspect that video adverts are more profitable than banner/text ads.

matthodan 17y ago

Interesting to see that they put their logo in the center instead of the top left-- I think it's a little distracting, but maybe this will become a new trend.

ugh 17y ago
Logo in the center? Hm, I seem to know that from somewhere ... ah, yeah: http://www.zdf.de/ http://www.zdf.de/ (German public service broadcaster, redesign from May)

Mongoose 17y ago

I don't think they could have made it look more like Last.fm.

_ck_ 17y ago

Well they get points for honesty, the word "news" doesn't appear anywhere in their heading. But they have have a huge entertainment section. I guess they are the new MTV where the original meaning of their name has been lost, it's just branding for any content. (The only time I watch CNN anymore is before 9am when they have CNN Asia/Europe on which is actually real news.)

ComputerGuru 17y ago

I see they still haven't addressed the issue of providing their readers with real news: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=888251 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=888251

the_real_r2d2 17y ago

Well, it is better late than never. I do not know if they are going to do it, but it would be nice that you can customize it with your preferences about type of news (sports, politics, etc.), location, etc. For what I have read it includes many "social media" sources but it lacks in personalization. Some months ago the BBC also changed its web site to make it more "Web 2.0". You can personalize it at some level. For example local weather forecast, type of news, type of tv shows in the iPlayer, financial data, etc. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/

haydenchambers 17y ago

the inconsistancy between page templates is mindblowing

onewland 17y ago

While I don't like the quality of their news reporting, I think CNN is one of the few news entertainment companies that really understands web design and has a minimally coherent plan for integrating with the internet. A UX guy at my work was describing how the current design is used as almost a textbook example at a good tech school of a clean way of presenting information. Contrast that, for example, to nytimes.com which is literally designed to look as similar as possible to the newspaper. Like I said, their "journalism" is garbage but maybe some startup or media company can emulate their ability to create an interface that encourages users to explore.

GBKS 17y ago
Completely agree. The current design does a great job at "delivering the news" in a straightforward fashion with minimal user effort. The new design of the home page looks pretty interesting, I'll have to use it for a while to see how it works. First impression is too much imagery, not enough content and not enough content organization. Splitting content in text vs. video doesn't help to get a quick idea of what's going on in business/politics/local/... From recent experience, I'm not a big fan of CNN news reporting due to too many must-see "man bites dog" story, too many irrelevant "breaking news" and too much recycled content with new headlines slapped on. Reading CNN has mostly become a matter of figuring out what content is worth reading. The best redesign will not change this (unfortunately). Any guesses what "NewsPulse" will be? A real-time news aggregator?