We waited over five years for the Jamaica Observer, the youngest of Jamaica’s two daily newspapers to upgrade and change the look and feel, navigational features and interactivity of their website. Its new site went live about 48 hrs ago.
What we now have is a site that is spacious, light and bright in its look and feel; well organised content that’s easy to see and get to; they’ve made smart space to accommodate advertising and video and in the age of sharing and social media tools, they’ve loaded up the site with more than 20 options. But still, they’ve not scored a touchdown in my mind, they’re still clutching the ball, toes just on the other side of the big win. Why? They continue to deny us of the one thing we want…to leave a comment and added to that the desire to read and share in the opinions of our fellow readers.
In my book it’s an oversight that needs immediate correcting. Now while I know managing the comments on a blog or media site can have its issues (time consuming, people saying not so nice things etc) this is no excuse to forget this two way communication that is crucial in this age when consumers, Jamaica Observer readers are in control and have so many other online places to get their news and information.
I do hope it’s a coming very soon feature, but I’d ask them to surf over to huffingtonpost.com an internet newspaper site, which is really a huge media blog. Now that company is not whimp and understands the role comments now play in online and offline media. Huffingtonpost.com has mastered the ability to let reader interactivity reign, they know it’s a big part of the dynamism that is online media and expected by online readers. They did not try to control what people say about the people and companies covered in their stories, they are facilitating and managing instead.
So it’s one and ¾ thumbs up to JamaicaObserver.com, but when you guys turn on your comment feature, it would mean you’ve decided to give up control, welcome the jump in traffic and time spent online and the inevitable jump in ad dollars that will follow. It’s time to let your readers reign.
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Interesting article, but …
… I think your credibility as a “critic” of websites and technology is questionable given the more glaring design blunder on your own website such an obvious and basic way of navigating back to your site’s home page from this (and other articles).
I think you should “clean up your own yard” before being so quick to point out the flaws in the neighbour’s garden.
Couldn’t agree more with this post!! Bring on the comments Observer! Love the new look…much much improved…but don’t wimp out! Go for the touchdown!
LOL@MeDehyah. I see someone from the Observer, anonymously posting here!
And yes you are correct, the homepage navigation got screwed when I put in the new logo in the header. It’s not a design blunder, just a lack of coding expertise on my part, a quick fix my a coder friend is on the way.
But ahmm was that all you could say from the entire post I made, ah how disappointing that all you could do was back bite! How about more meaningful commenting from you next time.
Actually, Ms. Riley, I am not affiliated with the Observer and agree with most of what you said about the Observer’s site. In fact, I could add to your comments, for e.g.
i) the video content on their site must be a placeholder as the content tends to have very little relevance to the primary theme of the site (i.e. Jamaican news).
ii) the improper and inconsistent use of ALL CAP title headings for each article (on the home page, article titles are initial capped whereas on section and article pages, article titles are ALL CAPPED)
iii) the inconsistent use of colour for title headings. On the home page section headings are in RED and article titles are in BLUE, yet on section pages (e.g. NEWS, BUSINESS, etc.) section headings AND titles are in RED.
However, as someone who wants to be deemed a credible critic in areas of web and technology, you of all people should acknowledge and appreciate that an excuse over a simple fundamental matter of website design is nothing short of admittal to your incompetence in this area.
AHhh now we have an intelligent if yet still anonymous response from MY critic. Thanks so much for your meaningful commentary about the Jamaica Observer website which is what this post is about and also what I believe my readers can learn from most.
But do keep reading SiliconCaribe.com I appreciate your passion for the blog and it’s need to maintain high standards itself.
Have an excellent week.
You know Ingrid, I am certain I saw another user complain about getting back to the home page in the comments area…
I stop typing and looked back…
See http://www.siliconcaribe.com/2008/12/30/content-sites-bracing-for-50-revenue-slowdown/#comments
One month later and it still not corrected.
Interesting change by the Jamaica Observer, we now wait and see what the Jamaica Gleaner will do…. if they can do anything
I like the new look of the Observer site, but you were correct in mentioning the lack of a commenting feature for the readers. After all it’s 2009, and we all like to air our opinions. It’s time to democratize the local news space, especially online. And what’s up with all that gaping white space between the paragraphs? Compare the home page with the news page to see what I mean.
Also, the Observer’s Breaking News feature is not implemented as a true breaking news feature. The Gleaner site as old and crappy as it is, got that one correct. They call it “Latest News.”
Breaking News is for a quick snippet of news introducing a developing story, that may be of great interest to the readers. That snippet would then be followed-up by the complete story, published soon after. This Breaking News feature would also be best implemented using a ticker tape, scrolling the news item across the top of the page, and the heading should be smaller than the regular news, but the whole thing highlighted using a bright background colour stretched across the length of the tape.
The breaking news would then become a main news item and the Breaking News ticker tape removed from the site for future use. It cannot remain there day after day giving false alerts about breaking news! lol.
By the way, Gleaner say they coming with a new site that has “..breaking news and updates, more interactivity, features, a fresh look, a global reach and an online platform for PDA users.” Did the Observer caught wind of this and hurry up to beat them with a refreshed site? Or was it the other way around? lol. Last thing: Observer that Youtube video with foreign news aint gonna work. We want local news video. We can get all them foreign news video from cnn, bbc and elsewhere. Me done.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090123/lead/lead10.html
Hey Ingrid, great blog. As someone who is tangentially involved in the online Caribbean experience (via my site, DubAndReggae.com), I agree that the Observer was long overdue for a refresh.
As someone working at a company that provides social networking functionality to online media companies, I can confirm that giving readers a voice is often a scary decision for editors, but it’s is easier to manage than many people would expect, given a solid software platform. The payoff for “going social” is huge, for all the reasons you and the other readers have mentioned. I’d actually suggest that the Observer go 1 step further and consider allowing users to blog and post to a message board on their site. We’ve seen other media websites follow these strategies and the resulting increases in engagement and page views (ad revenues) can be incredible.
Thanks for the analysis – I’m looking forward to reading more from you.
Peace
Chris
And I thought this article was about the Jamaica Observer’s website. The Jamaica Observer had a difficult time moderating the comments when they initially launched that feature and got some backlash as a result of it.
Granted user comments are an essential part of a news site, and you can implement it with very little moderation but a lot of accountability to the user.
I think I had written at minimum two emails asking the Jamaica Observer, why they have not yet updated their website with no reply, I had grown tired of seeing my 1990′s web design still going in 2008. They even kept the big ‘O’ with the globe I design, how nice.
@MeDehYah it’s pretty hard not to believe that there is no affiliation with the Jamaica Observer or it’s site based on your critical analysis of Ingrid’s own design flaws. Don’t get me wrong I’m not coming to her defense, but now it would seem that you had hoped for… well her approval. Don’t take it hard, the site is a grand improvement from what it was coming from and for that I applaud them.
However the people want what the people want, even if you offered a service such as a $5 a year VIP which offers authentication and the ability to use additional features of the site you would then have accountability. I for one would not abuse a service I am paying for especially with you have my personal information (Credit Card, PayPal…etc). Then you would have an additional revenue stream and no one can say you don’t have that feature.
Hey! You can’t pay for wisdom like this.
homepage navigation still not in here, so annoying.
love the new Observer site but what happened to their blog?
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