Why are local newspaper websites so horrible?

Why Local Newspaper Websites Are So Terrible - CityLab

 

Like Andrew McCutchen? [/crossthread]

 

What is truly terrible - is that most layoffs in the last 10 years have been framed as being part of their growing commitment to "digital." We know it's a lie. I went to look for a local softball score on a local news website, and came up empty. They still had stories up that were more than a month old on their high school sports page though.

 

With my copy-editing background, I'm biased, of course. But I believe many sites would be less "horrible" if stories received some real editing attention instead of being rushed onto the web directly from the field or receiving one hasty read. The most frequent reader complaints about my former shop's digital sites (stories were posted on the web before going to the print-centric copy desk) wasn't that they weren't timely or comprehensive but that they were riddled with spelling, grammatical and fact errors. But fixing the situation would require more time for editing and more money for copy editors. That's not going to happen.

 

Part of the problem is chains like Gannett and Gatehouse force the local sites to use the exact same framework and build as every other outlet in the chain. So you get an ugly, homogenized look. If you browse a couple of those sites at the same time, it's easy to forget which one you're on.

It also leaves little room for local creativity.

The other problem local sites have is they give away their ad space to Google instead of utilizing it themselves. Instead of getting paid per click or view through Google's algorithm, why not sell front page space to a local entity? My old shop used to do that when they were independent. They got bought by a chain a couple years ago and now that revenue is gone.

 

Excellent post. Very very excellent.
Let me add a Fredrick take as well: The websites are still a dumping ground for all the content that is readable (the newspaper gets the crap, so to speak; the website the gems). The higher ups put no money in design or ease of use, etc. They devise a simple format for all the papers in the company to use and simply tell the local suits: "go for it within this format and make us money. But do not spend any money hiring good sales people; do not spend any monetary resources making sure you get ads. Spend no money; use this cookie cutter format and show us the hits. Our CEO needs a new houseboat."

 

At my place we will hit pub rather quickly, but some of us also give it a second read immediately thereafter and clean it up really early.

 

If only we could get posters to do that here!

 

I know in many cases, if there's a decent web editor, he or she doesn't stay at a newspaper very long. They're jumping at the first chance to some other techie job that pays much more.