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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
Newsweek.com Relaunch: Your ‘Point of Convergence'  According to Newsweek digital general manager Geoff Reiss, there are many news sites out there that excel at one of these currents of news information, but none manages all three. “We thought here was a big, fat piece of unused real estate where content, aggregation and user-generated content join to offer a proposition that says, ‘The best possible content we can find anywhere will be presented to you as part of a conversation on a topic.’” Reiss says the new Newsweek.com will freely fold into its site links to other news sources that contribute to the topic or just cover a story better. In today’s lead position, for instance, the subject of women and their babies in prison features slide shows from Newsweek.com as well as links to stories from the Dallas News and CNN, and a link into a new Newsweekopedia of archived magazine stories on crime. “We are trying to be a convergence point for different kinds of content on the Web,” says Reiss. “It is not our supposition that Newsweek is going to be in the business of competing with a lot of other folks to be the first word on everything. “As a brand position, we want to be substantive and deep and complete on the things we think are most important,” says Reiss. The front page demonstrates a less-is-more approach. Much of the space above the fold is dominated by what Reiss describes as “the four most important conversations going on at any given moment,” where multiple sources and multimedia are collected around each topic. Small chunks of content fill in the rest of the page. The columnists module only shows three of the more recent and most important pieces at a time. A small “Conventional Wisdom” square invites users to vote a news story up or down in a kind of Hot or Not ranking poll. An “In the Know” box curates four top breaking story links from around the Web. And a multimedia box pulls together interactive and streaming media features. Newsweek’s collection of blogs as well as a Twitter feed of user comments appear lower in the page. And the international editions of the magazine are given greater play here than in previous iterations of the site with a carousel of overseas covers that click into their respective sites. Reiss says the new design reflects a deep rethink at Newsweek of what a newsweekly brand can bring to the table in a 24/7 Internet ecosystem dominated by blogs and aggregators. “We aren’t looking to be the 82nd place to read about Bo the dog,” he says. “We won’t add value. We are looking to develop an incredible amount of discipline to when you apply your resources to tell a story and have a real differentiated perspective before you jump in there.” The site has its work cut out for it. Currently serving an audience of more than 4 million monthly uniques and 50 million to 80 million page views, Newsweek.com maintains its legacy dependence on traffic from MSNBC.com, the news site that hosted the Newsweek brand for many years, as well as the MSN portal. The brand will be looking to diversify its traffic sources, but Reiss admits that media habits die hard and attracting daily loyalty to another media brand is a hard sell. “We are creatures of habit when it comes to consuming all forms of media,” he says. The site has to weave its way into people’s daily newsgathering reflexes so that “we create a bit of a caffeine headache” when a visitor doesn’t remember to come. As if launching a new site for a major newsweekly is not setting the bar high enough for his three-person staff, Reiss and the digital crew are also in the midst of relocating. After 15 years at the corner of 57th St. and 8th Ave. in New York City, they are moving to new offices at Hudson and Houston on May 29. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com COMMENTS
1.
The new Newsweek has left out a third of the population by choosing a font that is almost impossible to read for anyone over 60. The font is too small and too "wiggly" for older readers. I will be canceling my subscription. Life is too short to struggle in any way!!
Posted by Dr. Jean Sindhikara on Thursday, May 28, 2009 @ 06:59 AM
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