I’m rather partial to The Miami Herald (I’m from Miami and I interned there this spring and summer) but honestly their website needs an update immediately. It’s far too cluttered, and I tend to confuse articles and ads.
Ok, so it isn’t so bad today, but just keep scrolling down:
Every single bit of multimedia is crunched into one area. No, no, no, that’s not right! If journalism school has taught me ANYTHING so far it’s that multimedia is the way of the future, and therefore should be incorporated into every part of the newspaper, not shoved into its own block. The 60 second review should go into the Tropical Life section, high school football should be within the Neighbors online section, college football should go into sports, and so on.
Next down we have The News Grid.
I fail to comprehend the necessity of this section. It’s far too cluttered, eclectic, and all of the articles start to look the same after a while. On top of that, AP stories are categorized as AP stories… Aren’t they supposed to be assimilated into the rest of the newspaper? Stories are being organized based on where they’re coming from, not what they’re about.
Now we reach The Neighbors online section…
And a part of me dies inside.
I am extremely partial to The Neighbors section. I adore it. A speaker from the New York Times came to my journalism class and told us that local news is what will one day keep the big newspapers afloat. I whole-heartedly agree. People want to know about what’s happening in their city, in their neighborhood, down their street, ect and so forth. This tiny online section does not do the justice that Neighbors needs. So far it has a selectable bar of cities; however, that list hardly changes from Aventura to Downtown to Kendall, and if you’re from Miami you know that those cities are extremely different. The idea that the public can submit photos for publication is a great idea, as long as they’re diverse enough. One photo for the entirety of Miami will not do. On top of that, it isn’t like they’re crammed for space. It’s the internet! There’s unlimited space! I have an idea about how to improve The Miami Herald Neighbors website, which I will include in my next blog post–sketches and all.
Now I don’t have any problem with the quality of The Miami Herald. I believe their writing is excellent and quite honestly I think they’re the best newspaper in Florida. Basically, they rock my socks. However, with this new age of newspaper digitalization, The Miami Herald is going to have to kick it up a notch to stay in the game, and that starts with having an eye-catching and easy to navigate website.
