Brent Boyer
Brent Boyer: A fresh look for the front page
Friday, January 14, 2011
Steamboat Springs — Familiarity often is a good thing. As creatures of habit, we appreciate consistency, and that includes from our daily newspaper. Readers become accustomed to seeing the same features in the same places. When we mess with that consistency, we typically hear about it — and quickly.
When we don’t hear anything after a significant change, it can be interpreted in two ways: readers either didn’t care, or they like it. Because we think we have good reasons for any changes we make, I’m generally satisfied with either interpretation.
Case in point: We haven’t heard a peep in the month since we made one of the most noticeable changes to the Steamboat Today in the eight years I’ve been here. On Dec. 16, the Steamboat Today featured two stories on its front page, and we’ve published two stories on the front page since.
Gone is the vertical column of story teases, or refers, that had appeared on the left-hand side of the cover since the last significant redesign of the Steamboat Today in January 2001. It was time for a fresh look for the cover of the newspaper. Adding a second story allows for variety and flexibility. Two hard news stories worthy of the cover now both can have a place. A great feature or human-interest story doesn’t have to be knocked off the front by a timely news event. And, quite frankly, I think our story teases had outlived their usefulness.
I hope you like the change. I love it.
A couple of other notes:
■ Saturday is the last day to vote in our Best of the Boat survey. As of Thursday evening, 2,940 readers had voted in Part 1 of the survey, and 2,230 readers had voted in Part 2. We’re thrilled with the response from the community, and we’d love to see the vote total surpass 3,000. By comparison, the last time we conducted a Best of the Boat survey, in 2002, we had 300 votes. If you haven’t voted in both parts of the survey, visit www.bestoftheboat.com. Winners will be announced in March.
■ On Tuesday night, we made the switch so that the official URL for our website is www.steamboattoday.com. There’s no reason to change your bookmarks, as www.steamboatpilot.com automatically redirects your browser to www.steamboattoday.com.
The reason for the switch is simple: We publish 313 editions of the Steamboat Today every year, compared with 52 editions of the Steamboat Pilot & Today. We think Steamboat Today speaks directly to who we are as an organization: the daily source of news and information for Steamboat Springs and Routt County.
We are Steamboat, and we are with you every single day of the year.
Brent Boyer is the editor of the Steamboat Today. He can be reached at 970-871-4221 or bboyer@steamboatpilot.com.
Comments
hereandthere 2 years, 4 months ago
That's great Brent. Now how about fixing your on line version so that it is not so frustrating to read. The continous need to scroll up and down to keep up with the pop down ad distracts from the quality experience I would think you arr trying to provide. What is more frustrating is that this has been pointed out several times by myself and others, but not only has it not been fixed, you do not feel that our complaint is worth responding to.
How about it Brent.
fartpark 2 years, 4 months ago
I agree, the pop down is terribly annoying. Also, whats the chance of making the daily crossword / sudoku printable?
Scott Stanford 2 years, 4 months ago
I truly appreciate the feedback, and I know that others have made similar complaints. We have to balance that feedback against the value the drop down ad delivers for advertisers. And it has proven to be the most effective advertising space, based on click throughs per impression, on our site. That's important given that our business model for the site is to deliver content for free thanks to advertising support.
So the short answer is we plan to keep the ad as is for now. Please know the ad should drop down only once during a user session. It should not retract on its own, though a user can close the expanded ad. If it is not functioning as I have described, please email webmaster@steamboatToday.com Make sure to cite what browser and which version you are using.
Scott Stanford General Manager (970) 871-4202 sstanford@SteamboatToday.com
Scott Wedel 2 years, 4 months ago
Brent, Scott Stanford, Yes, I have clicked on that annoying ad numerous times because I was trying to click something else as the ad moved. What next? Randomly forwarding clicks on articles to your advertisers and see how many ad hits that generates?
Do you really suggest that readers annoyed by the ad contact your advertisers to have them stop using that ad format on the threat of annoyed potential noncustomers?
I do not care if you all want to put in a giant ad, but it violates every principle of user experience to have an ad that switches size twice. It is hardly an admirable defense to suggest it is okay because it only expands once and then shrinks once. The ad is not more convenient when it is small, it is just a trap about to get big that scrolls off what I am reading. And then when I scroll down then it shrinks so I have to scroll up again.
And what obscure system config am I using? Mozilla on Windows? Seriously, the ad is not supposed to automatically shrink for current Mozilla on Windows 7 or Vista?
Just do the right thing and have that ad to be size you want. Not this stupid switching back and forth.
Oh well, if you are committed to keeping it then I guess it is worthwhile to find one of those site specific flash suppression plug in so that I can disable flash (and hence those ads) for this one site. Keep track of number of visitors with flash disabled.
trump_suit 2 years, 4 months ago
I have disabled Flash when using the Steamboatpilot.com. It makes some things I might otherwise enjoy not work, but it keeps me from having to put up with the annoying drop down advertisements. Is this really the effect that you are looking for?
Now, when I surf the Pilot I actually see very few advertisements and lots of static sized blank boxes when the ad content would be. I encourage you all to try this approach, it works,
Ken Reed 2 years, 4 months ago
Here are the steps for doing this in Mozilla FireFox:
To enable Flash again, just click on one of the ads then click the Enable button.
kathy foos 2 years, 4 months ago
The Two story front page is nice.You all are doing a great job.Your storys and opinion columns are very interesting. Scott Wedel ,I can relate.Im not the only one that accidently sets it off then? I must be the one that does it the most. I kinda get used to it.I cant recall that happening on any other site I have ever visited. I've had them just pop on accidently,but not roll and jerk my screen around.Sometimes it make me sea sick,but I am getting trained.Im just not able to disable,I have to live with it.Its O.K.
hereandthere 2 years, 4 months ago
Thanks for the response Brent. Not a satisfactory response, but at least a response. I think if you tried a little harder, you and your IT guys could figure out a fix. Like the above poster stated, I do not get this experience at other web sites. Lets take it up a notch, I am confident it can be done.
madsue 2 years, 4 months ago
I like the new look and the additions of the book and restaurant reviews. I also have no problems viewing the e-edition and love it. One thing I notice is that there is more space for ads lately and less taken up by valuable content. However, what we read for free has to be paid for ....
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