mikemcguff.com: Houston and Dallas newspaper Web sites get D grades

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Houston and Dallas newspaper Web sites get D grades

Douglas A. McIntyre at 247wallst.com rated the top newspaper web sites in the US. He was not kind when it came to the Web sites for the Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News. Both sites got graded in the D range and that was not for 'Darn good' either.

Some of the remarks for the Houston Chronicle:

This site is a bit of a mess and is as good an example of what not to do with a newspaper site as any in this survey. The navigation across the homepage includes twenty five tabs some of which are labeled poorly enough so that it is hard for the reader to understand what they are. The front page really does not have a headline per se. The stories at the top of the page are features which don’t appear to be chosen to compel the reader to go further into the website. Some of the stories near the top of the page are from the Associated Press, an indication that the editors don’t feel that they have enough compelling content of their own. READ THE REST

Some of the remarks for the Dallas Morning News:

Dallasnews.com looks like it was put together by The Mad Hatter. Poorly designed traffic and weather sections often sit at the top of the homepage. There are some headlines that have no explanations. Others are explained too much so that reading the story would be redundant. The visitor cannot expect any consistency as he moves around the site. The first few stories are followed by blogs and a photo section where the content seems to have been picked at random. READ THE REST