By Steven Snell
News websites can be intriguing to examine from a design perspective. Regardless of what type of news they cover, they all face the challenge of displaying a huge amount of content on the home page, which creates plenty of layout, usability and navigational challenges for the designer. The lessons that can be learned from examining how news websites address these challenges can be valuable for designers who work with other types of websites, including ones with blog theme designs.
Monetization is also a major factor for news websites, and it’s interesting to see how they integrate advertisements in the design. In some cases, the ads are somewhat intrusive or excessive, but most news websites are able to use ads without turning readers away, in part because of the content that’s available.
For the purposes of this article, the term “newspaper website” refers to any news-related website that has the editorial focus of an online periodical. Many of the websites mentioned here are the online versions of major newspapers, but others are standard news websites and some blur the line between news website and blog.
You may want to take a look at the following related posts:
- Award-Winning Newspaper Designs
This post is supposed to provide you with some examples of outstanding newspaper designs which have been rewarded with prestigious awards (see references at the bottom of this post), and demonstrate unusual approaches of newspaper design.
Common Trends of Newspaper Websites
1. Color Schemes
Most news websites use dark text on a white background. Obviously, these websites contain a huge volume of content, and readability is important. A few of the websites mentioned later in this article use darker colors for headers or for the body of the page outside the content.
A large percentage of news websites also use blue and red in addition to a dark gray or black for text. Blue is extremely common for headlines, article titles and links. Red is often used sparingly as an accent color. Some news websites also mix in more colors in other places, such as in the navigation.
The L.A. Times website demonstrates a common color scheme:
2. Header and Sidebar Banners
Of course, all of these websites need to produce revenue, and banner ads in headers are a key source of income. Some websites use banner ads on all pages, and others exclude banners on the home page but display them above the header on other pages.
While blogs commonly use 125 by 125 pixel banners in sidebars, news websites commonly use 300 by 250 banners or tall skyscrapers. Many of the websites mix in some AdSense or other text link ads.
The Telegraph uses a 730 by 90 pixel banner over its header.
3. Top Navigation
Although there are a few notable exceptions to this trend, most news websites put their primary navigation menu just below the header and above the content. The New York Times and MSNBC are two of the exceptions, as they both use the left sidebar for the main navigation.
The Times Online uses a two-level navigation menu.
4. Tabbed Content Areas
Many news websites use tabbed content areas that allow visitors to see popular articles, recent articles, most commented articles, etc. This is sometimes used in the sidebar, and other times in the main content area, such as on Wired. This allows for more control by users over what content and links they see, and it can save space in the design by making more content accessible in a specific area.
5. Grid-Based Layouts
Newspaper websites are commonly built with grid-based designs. The grid is a popular choice not only because of the sharp look it creates but because it’s one of the most effective ways to manage and organize a large amount of content. The New York Times has one of the more well-known grid-based layouts.
Notable Differences Between News Websites and Blogs
The line between a news website and a blog is a fine one, and the two types are difficult to distinguish sometimes. For the purpose of this article, “blog” refers more to a traditional blog than to a commercialized news blog by a team of writers. While there are certainly similarities between blogs and news websites, there are also some key differences.
Social Media Integration
Seeing widgets or voting buttons on blogs is extremely common; in fact, most blogs use them in one form or another. Most news websites, however, use them more subtly, if at all. It’s common to see a “Share” section on articles, such as the one shown below from ABC News, but voting buttons are not used in quite the same way as on blogs, where a standard “Digg This” button may appear at the top of every post. A growing number of news websites recognize the impact of social media, but they are still using such tools subtly in their designs.
A few websites shown in more detail below do make more use of social media than others. The Huffington Post has a section specifically to display stories that are new on Digg, and the website certainly makes plenty of front page appearances.
RSS Feeds
Subscriptions and RSS feeds are a huge part of blogging, and most blogs use large icons or FeedBurner counts to make it easy for visitors to subscribe. Most news websites, however, don’t push RSS feeds on readers like a blog would. Most news websites do offer feeds, often according to category of content, but they’re not a major part of the design or layout. In fact, most visitors probably don’t even notice the small icons or links to feeds. As RSS feeds become a part of the daily lives of average readers, this will probably change.
The Guardian promotes a link to its feed in the website’s header, but with much less attention drawn to it than most blog themes.
Comments
Reader comments and discussion are a critical element for most blogs, but they’re not as important to news websites. Many news websites allow readers to leave comments, but they’re usually an afterthought in the design and are rarely promoted the same way as they would be on a blog. For example, many blogs show excerpts of posts on the front page, and almost all will also show a comment count with the excerpt that links to the comment section. This is used on a few news websites, but it’s rare.
ABC News is one of the rare news websites that shows a comment count by the post excerpt on the home page.
A Look at 20 Leading Newspaper Websites
The Onion
Satirical news website The Onion features a grid-based design (it’s been called the funniest grid you ever saw) that makes excellent use of the screen space that’s available. There is a lot going on on the website, which can be both good and bad. The main navigation separates the content into video, radio, sports, election, etc.
The header includes an ad on each side, and the sidebar has some advertising as well, but nothing too intrusive. Some parts of the home page are used essentially as advertisements for features that are part of The Onion, such as The Onion Personals and The Onion Store.
New York Times
The website of the New York Times is another well-known grid. The majority of the website’s navigation is down the left side of the page, which is not as common as top navigation. The website does use a tabbed navigation bar at the top with links to such features as “Today’s paper,” “Video,” and “Most popular,” but all of the content category links, such as World, U.S., Politics, Business, etc., are down the side.
The website’s design includes a nice use of blue and black headers and links, with a touch of red added in a few places, such as the time of an article’s publication. Overall, the New York Times presents one of the better newspaper websites.
Chicago Tribune
Unlike many of the other websites featured here, the Chicago Tribune uses only one small banner in the header of its home page, although individual article pages use a 730 by 90 banner. Aside from the header, the rest of the home page is fairly ad-heavy, including text link ads.
The content on the Chicago Tribune website is spaced out a bit more than, for example, the New York Times’. Again, blue is used for headers and links, with a touch of red.
Washington Post
The Washington Post also uses the common colors of blue, black (or dark gray) and red on a white background. The header includes a small 290 by 45 banner, and the top of the sidebar includes a 300 by 250 banner. The rest of the home page contains only a few other small banner ads.
The layout of content on the home page is focused on providing categorized links to specific content. An image is included for the lead story, but other headlines above the fold do not have thumbnails. At the top right, there is a section for the most-viewed articles.
Los Angeles Times
The L.A. Times website takes a different approach with its header than some other news websites. There is relatively little going on there, with plenty of unused space that could be filled with ads, something that most other news sites are doing. The rest of the home page uses only two 300 by 250 banners and a few text link ads. Individual article pages use a 730 by 90 banner above the header.
The content of the L.A. Times home page is contained in a grid-based layout, with primary navigation on the left. Again, blue, black and red are the colors of choice for text, links and headlines.
Tennessean
The Tennessean isn’t one of the largest newspapers in the U.S., but its website is worth noting. The Tennessean breaks some of the norms of the other websites that have been examined so far, primarily in terms of color. A dark orange is used for headlines and links, instead of a more common choice, such as blue. Additionally, a green background color is used on the sidebar.
There is a 300 by 250 banner in the sidebar and a skyscraper in the left sidebar, with more ads at the very bottom of the page. Individual article pages include a 730 by 90 banner above the header.
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle packs a large number of headlines onto the home page, including in the top center of the layout. This means there are more links to content above the fold, but each of them stands out less than it would on a news website that uses more thumbnails.
The website has no ads in the header of the home page, but has a few banners in the right sidebar and some text link ads at the bottom of the page. Article pages have a 730 by 90 banner above the header.
USA Today
The USA Today uses more color than many other news websites, particularly in the navigation menu and with links throughout the website. Category links for feature articles, such as sports, markets, education and people, all use different colors, which help them stand out.
Unlike most news websites, the USA Today shows the number of comments on articles right by the headlines on the home page. Only a few smaller banners are located on the home page, aside from a 730 by 90 banner at the very bottom of the page. Individual article pages are much more ad-filled, and at times while navigating through the website you may encounter a full-page ad that you have to skip to get to the content.
Mail Online
British news website Mail Online uses a more colorful design than many other news websites. The headlines and links are a lighter blue than those on the New York Times or Chicago Tribune websites, and they turn red on hover. The right sidebar includes tons of thumbnails from recent posts and colorful headers and roll-overs.
The website includes AdSense ads in the header and various ads throughout the rest of the layout, including some in the middle column. The grid layout keeps the content organized and makes use of virtually the whole page, which is incredibly long.
Telegraph
Another leading UK news website, the Telegraph, uses a nice, clean grid-based layout. Above the header is a 730 by 90 banner, and the only other advertising on the home page is a 300 by 250 banner and a skyscraper, both in the right sidebar.
The home page design makes extensive use of thumbnails to go along with article headlines and brief descriptions. Blue and red are used for headlines and links. The main navigation is located at the top of the page.
Guardian
The Guardian uses a clean but colorful design. The main navigation at the top of the page consists of various colored links to different sections of news. The home page uses little advertising, but individual article pages include a 730 by 90 banner above the header of the page, and 300 by 250 ad at the top of the sidebar.
Headers on the Guardian website are a common blue, but colorful borders are used to add some visual appeal. Thumbnails are used in several spots on the home page, but most stories have only a headline and brief description or just a headline.
Times Online
The Times Online is one of the few news websites to use a bright color in its logo/branding area, but it does accomplish the goal of distinguishing the website. Above the header is a 730 by 90 banner.
The home page uses a two-level navigation menu above the content and a fairly typical blue color for headlines. Several article excerpts on the home page include thumbnails, but there are no large images for featured articles as there are on many news websites.
MSNBC
MSNBC stands out among other news websites due to its dark yet colorful header, a look that’s been imitated by many Photoshop users. The header includes no advertisements, and in fact there is only one ad visible above the fold. Text link ads are used in a few places throughout the home page. Individual article pages do include a 730 by 90 banner above the header at the very top of the page.
Overall MSNBC is a very well-designed website, with an attractive color scheme and a layout that’s well-structured but not overly cluttered. Like the New York Times, MSNBC uses the left sidebar for its primary navigation.
ABC News
ABC News features a dark header that helps distinguish the website from other news leaders. There is relatively little advertising on the home page. The right sidebar contains a 300 by 250 banner and the only other ads are at the very bottom of the page.
At the top right of the page there are three current videos, plus a link to more video content. While other news websites include video, most don’t place videos as high on the page as ABC News does.
Ars Technica
Tech news website Ars Technica has a vastly different design than mainstream general news websites, which should be expected. Unlike the image-heavy general news websites, Ars Technica does not use thumbnails on its home page. Additionally, the article pages have very few images in comparison to general news websites.
The website uses tabbed navigation at the top of the page to take visitors to different categories of news, such as Business, IT, Apple, Hardware, etc. The header includes a 730 by 90 banner, and the top of the right sidebar includes a 300 by 250 banner ad. Further down the sidebar is a skyscraper banner.
CNET News
Tech news website CNET News uses a fairly basic design with a dark header, a featured content area, and a long list of headlines with brief excerpts. Blue and red are used for headlines and links.
The header includes a small text link ad on the right side of the screen and a few 300 by 250 ads in the sidebar. No additional ads are used on individual articles.
TechRadar
UK technology news website TechRadar includes a few items that currently aren’t very common on other news websites. Just above the content of the page, there is a “TechRadar Update” section that scrolls through links to the most recent content. Additionally, there is a featured content area that rotates through the six leading stories. Below the featured content area is a grid of the latest news headlines with brief excerpts.
The website header includes a 730 x 90 banner, and the sidebar contains some other banners and text link ads. The navigation on TechRadar is a bit different as it uses tabs for news, reviews, blogs, and forums.
Wired
The design for Wired is rather unique. Most notably, thumbnails, headlines and excerpts of featured content reside above the main navigation menu. Thumbnails are used below for the most recent article in each of seven different categories.
The header includes no banners, just an internal advertisement for WiredBiz. The sidebar contains a few ads as well as additional monetization through a job board widget that links to recent job postings on the website’s job board.
The Huffington Post
The layout and design of individual pages on The Huffington Post is quite different than that of the home page. On individual pages you see a small logo/branding area at the top left, with a very long banner on the right that takes up most of the width of the page. Advertisements throughout the rest of the page are fairly minimal.
On the home page, most of the area above the fold is used for a headline and image from a featured article. The rest of the home page includes a lot of images and headlines, as well as post excerpts from a variety of writers in the left sidebar.
Sporting News
The Sporting News has one of the most outdated designs. The header is used primarily for displaying scores, but with less space efficiency than other major sports websites. Above the header is a 730 by 90 banner.
Much of the real estate of the sidebar is used for directing visitors to other sections of the website, such as Sporting News Radio, the Blog Network and community blogs.
Related posts
You may want to take a look at the following related posts:
- Award-Winning Newspaper Designs
This post is supposed to provide you with some examples of outstanding newspaper designs which have been rewarded with prestigious awards (see references at the bottom of this post), and demonstrate unusual approaches of newspaper design.
About the Author:
Steven Snell is a Web designer and freelance blogger who can be found on his own blogs: Vandelay Website Design and DesignM.ag. (al)
SpringSource announced today the acquisition of G2One, the company behind Grails and Groovy. InfoQ sat down with SpringSource CEO Rod Johnson and G2One CTO Graeme Rocher to discuss the benefits of combining forces. By Scott Delap
In case you're looking for a stylish and sturdy third-party keyboard option for your Mac, try out Logitech's new diNovo Keyboard Mac Edition. The peripheral features a full-size layout, nineteen shortcut keys for direct access to Mac programs, an integrated number pad, no cords (using 2.4GHz wireless) and a 3-year battery life. We reviewed the diNovo Edge keyboard in August and loved it. This one, at $99, is about $60 cheaper without sacrificing too many of the features of its more expensive bigger brother.
Logitech Unveils Elegant diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition
Cordless Keyboard Provides Exceptional Comfort of PerfectStroke
Key System, Convenience of 3-Year Battery Life, Integrated Number Pad
FREMONT, Calif. — Nov. 11, 2008 — Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) today unveiled the newest addition to its line of award-winning diNovo keyboards – the Logitech® diNovo Keyboard, Mac® Edition. In addition to offering the exceptionally comfortable typing experience of the Logitech PerfectStroke™ key system, the cordless diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition provides the convenience of a 3-year battery life and an integrated number pad.
"With the recently released diNovo Edge™, Mac Edition, and now this diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition, Logitech is giving people more options when it comes to choosing a keyboard that perfectly complements the Mac design," said Denis Pavillard, vice president of product marketing for Logitech's keyboards and desktops. "While the diNovo Edge keyboard is rechargeable and includes a TouchDisc™ and touch-sensitive volume control, our newest diNovo keyboard has a full-size layout and nineteen shortcut keys that provide quick access to Safari®, iTunes®, Expose®, iChat® and much more."
Featuring the classic diNovo design language, the sleek diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition – with its high-gloss, semi-translucent Plexiglas® frame, sharp angles and thin profile (.87 inches or 22.10 mm from base to key caps) – is an elegant, modern accompaniment to any Mac computer. Plus, when it's time to rest between typing sessions, the built-in, brushed-aluminum palm rest provides a stable, satin-touch base.
For a typing experience that's comfortable and fluid, the diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition features the Logitech PerfectStroke™ key system. PerfectStroke is designed to create longer key travel – 3.2 mm compared to 2.2 mm – than that of typical notebook keyboards, which means that the distance your fingers have to travel to activate a key is optimized for your comfort. And because micro-scissors distribute force evenly across key surfaces, even if you strike the edge of a key, the key stroke still feels the same.
Getting to your favorite applications is as easy as pressing the appropriate F-key. The diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition delivers one-touch access to Mail, Safari, iTunes, Exposé, Cover Flow®, Dashboard, QuickLook and Spaces. In addition, Play, Pause, Mute and Volume buttons simplify media control. (Logitech Control Center software installation is required for some features.)
Because you often use your Mac computer in busy wireless environments, the diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition employs Logitech's advanced 2.4 GHz wireless technology, which dramatically reduces interference, effectively eliminating delays and dropouts. And by optimizing the power management system, Logitech's improved wireless technology enables an impressive 3-year battery life – Logitech's longest.
The diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition can be used with any Mac computer, including the MacBook Air™, iMac®, MacBook® or MacBook® Pro.
Pricing and Availability
The Logitech diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition cordless keyboard is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe beginning this month for a suggested retail price of $99.99 (U.S.).
About Logitech
Logitech is a world leader in personal peripherals, driving innovation in PC navigation, Internet communications, digital music, home-entertainment control, gaming and wireless devices. Founded in 1981, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI).
# # #
Logitech, the Logitech logo, and other Logitech marks are registered in Switzerland and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information about Logitech and its products, visit the company's Web site at www.logitech.com.
This is a guide that, if followed, will unchain your Apple TV from its cruel iTunes tether, turning it into the useful living room conduit of music, video and web-based content it should have been all along via the media center software Boxee. Boxee can be installed fairly easily via the ATV's USB port to bring Hulu and Comedy Central streaming, playback of any video or music file anywhere on your network in virtually any file type imagineable, and a bevy of internet A/V sources like Flickr, Last.fm, NPR and BBC podcasts and tons of others—all upping the usefulness and fun of Apple's notoriously underachieving box by a factor of 10, easily. If you have an ATV, Boxee is a must-install, and it's 100% free. Let's get started.
The stock Apple TV has never been able to decide what it's supposed to do. Is it a device to store all your videos? Its built-in hard drive would suggest yes, but the fact that everything needs to be piped through iTunes makes this a hassle if you store your videos in any other way. And why are we downloading and storing anyway? Streaming is the way things are headed, and for streaming, Apple TV doesn't make a ton of sense, especially when a box a quarter its size and a less than half its price can bring Netflix's massive library into your living room with zero download delays and zero added cost, soon in HD, even.
Aside from adding the golden goose of Hulu streaming, Boxee's other main advantage is freeing your Apple TV from its direct connection with your iTunes library. No longer will it be necessary to convert all of your video files into iTunes compatible formats to get them to your TV—Boxee will let your Apple TV read just about any video codec you can throw at it (full list of codecs here) from any computer or network-attached storage device on your network, or read files off the Apple TV's own hard disk—all while leaving the default OS untouched and 100% functional. So let's do this.
What You'll Need:
• Apple TV with software version 2.0 or higher
• A USB flash drive 512MB or larger
• ATV USB Creator [download: 1.0.b7 version - Mac only, for now]
• An invite into Boxee's semi-public alpha (use this link especially for Giz readers to jump the line a bit)
Prepare Your USB Drive
Just like the iPhone, the Apple TV is basically an OS X computer (running a 1GHz Intel processor), so Boxee installs just like a regular desktop app in the Applications folder, which is hidden normally. Why Apple hasn't opened up the Apple TV to third party developers is anyone's guess, but thankfully, with a prepared USB stick it's all pretty painless.
1. After unpacking the ATV USB Creator application, start it up with the USB flash drive you intend to use mounted. Select "ATV-Patchstic" as your installation option and "Boxee for Mac" as the installation type. At the bottom, select the BSD location of your flash disk. You can find this with System Profiler under the USB section (probably a good idea to unmount any other USB drives so you don't accidentally wipe them).
2. Click "Create Using ->" and your USB stick will be formatted and loaded up with the appropriate software.
3. Power off your Apple TV (by unplugging it), drop your USB patchstick into the ATV's USB slot, and plug it back in. You'll see Tux and a bunch of code streaming on your screen as the software installs.
4. When it's done, remove the USB stick and restart the ATV.
Download Boxee via the Boxee Launcher
5. The USB patchstick installs a launcher that can then pull down the latest version of Boxee from the web. The first thing you'll want to do, then, to ensure you have the latest version, is update the launcher itself. Go to the new option "Boxee" in the ATV menu, choose "Update" and then update the Launcher.
6. Now, go to the new Boxee menu and choose "Update" -> "Boxee alpha..." to pull down and install Boxee itself. Once it installs, select "Boxee" from the new menu "Boxee/XBMC" menu to start it up.
Configure Boxee
7. Enter the user account you registered on boxee.tv (via our invite link above). Boxee also adds some nifty social networking features—if you have any buddies also using it, you can see what they've recently watched, added to their collections, or recommended to you via Boxee's home screen.
8. First thing you'll want to do once you're in is make sure Boxee displays perfectly on your screen. Settings are accessible by pressing "left" on the ATV remote at any time, so go to "Settings - Appearance - Video Calibration..." to set overscan and sizing options.
Add Your Sources
Right now, under the "Videos" menu, you can browse and stream the complete offerings from Hulu, Comedy Central, Revision3, and a ton of other web video sources. But Boxee really shines when it can play your media files from anywhere on your network.
Add an SMB Share
This can be a network attached storage drive (you've read our guide for getting the best NAS setup, right?) or simply a shared folder on a Mac or PC on your network (to share a folder in OS X, enable File Sharing in your Sharing settings, enable SMB shares under "Options" and add your media folder. Boxee will then auto detect your shares.
9. In Boxee's Settings menu, select "Media Sources and Applications -> Network Sources" and choose "Add New Source." Select your share in the menu that comes up and mark it wither Video, Music or Photos. Boxee will now monitor this folder and add any TV shows and movies it recognizes (complete with cover art, episode descriptions, and the like) to the main videos menu (Boxee's full of little surprises like this). It won't catch everything though, so you can always access your added folders manually by choosing "Sources" under the main Video menu.
Access Apple TV via SSH For Copying Media Files
Aside from streaming from SMB shares, Boxee can also of course play files stored locally in its own file system. You can connect to the Apple TV via SSH/SFTP for copying files directly over your network and accessing your Apple TV's main file system.
10. In an FTP program like Transmit or Cyberduck (but using SFTP), connect to appletv.local with the username and password both set to "frontrow" - this will log you in to your Apple TV's file system, which has a structure exactly like OS X's. You can also connect via SSH from the terminal if you prefer the geekier side.
11. In the folder /Users/frontrow you will find folders labeled Movies, Music and Pictures. Any media added to these folders will be automatically recognized and playable after copying.
Torrent RSS
Yeah, Boxee can also download Torrents. It comes with a listing of public domain movie and TV Torrents under the "Public Torrents" source, but you can also have your Apple TV download whatever Torrents you want.
12. To add a Torrent to Boxee's download manager, simply copy the .torrent file to the Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/Torrents folder using the SFTP technique above and it will immediately begin downloading. Awesome.
Uninstalling All Traces of Boxee
Should you want to wipe your machine totally clean of any Boxee related tinkering, it's easy. Fire up a Terminal and type in the following commands, each on their own line:
ssh frontrow@appletv.local
sudo rm -rf /Applications/Boxee.app/
sudo rm -rf /Applications/XBMC.app/
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/XBMCLauncher.frappliance/
rm -rf /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/BOXEE/
rm -rf /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/XBMC/
What's Next For Boxee
Boxee is on the move. Over the course of three alphas I've used (I can't believe this is alpha software) over only the last month or so, this thing has improved by incredible bounds—interface is getting better, weirdness and inconsistencies getting less common, all good signs.
Eventually, Boxee wants to be in set top boxes and on every platform (Windows is coming before the end of the year)—since it supports practically every audio and video codec known, it's aiming to be the Firefox of multi-platform connected AV setups, featuring plug-ins and add-ons of its own. It doesn't support DRM of any kind, so don't hold your breath for Boxee to be picked up by any of the majors. Fine with me.
Feature wise, Netflix streaming (yessss) and ABC.com are first on the Boxee folks' list.
Boxee's an open source app, so its forums are a lively place to ask for help and suggest more features to the main developers, who hang out there often. If you run into any bumps, that's the place.
