Wicked Local Newton has a new website. Check it out and discuss.
Wicked Local redesigns website
by Greg Reibman | Jan 24, 2014 | Newton TAB | 20 comments
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It looks buggy. The main page comes up visually fairly quickly but my browser thinks it still loading the page for another whole minute after that.
I tried to log on too. If I am going to wait that long for a website, I want free healthcare.
@Patrick – ;-)
the dude is on a roll!
New owner, new lousy website. It seems that the Newton TAB isn’t the only wickedlocal.com website that has that problem either.
Joshua – Who’s the new owner?
{blushes} Sorry folks, we’re fixing things up as fast as we can. I promise you’ll be able to keep your existing reporters.
@Joshua and @Gail — the TAB’s owners did take a new name (and buy some new papers) during the recent structuring — but we’re still the same folks here.
New Media Investment Group. They own legacy Gatehouse Media and Dow Jones’s former local media operations. Newcastle owns New Media but will be spinning it off to comply with REIT tax laws.
@Joshua: I think the same people are making the editorial, web design, etc. decisions.
Where’s the Tab Blog? It’s empty except for a title:
Newton TAB blog
Netwon, Mass. in blog form.
I’ve never understood why our url says ‘netwon-ma’ and there’s ‘netwon’ again.
And they should have one click to get to the Tab Blog.
Well, thank the deity that they got rid of that annoying pop-up page. It was driving me nuts.
You mean that thing that just popped up on me when I clicked on Blogs? Maybe your pop-up blocker is working better than mine. I hate that, too.
Feedback for the designers of the new site:
When one clicks on Wicked Local Newton, the lead hedline is: “Newton crime watch: gold necklace stolen,” with a photo of Mayor Setti Warren underneath it.
Probably not the look you’re going for.
Gail Spector — The other sites using this format (Patriot Ledger, Enterprise…) use that banner (the gold watch line) for emerging stories. Brockton used it yesterday when their police chief was demoted by the newly elected mayor and they wanted the news public before they had a chance to write a full article.
@Hoss: I would assume they all use the same template. And I would expect that they’ll have bugs and unintended consequences. One of those sites could end up with a much worse scenario than it looking like — at first glance — the mayor of the city stole a gold watch, i.e. a breaking news headline about a tragic car accident with a happy photo of a teenager who made honor role. Not at all an impossible scenario with the current template. Just my feedback as a frequenter of news sites.
Of course, in corporate terms, using the same template is not only a cost saver, but presents a consistent brand across the enterprise. They still have a ways to go in this. We should be picking up any related newsprint (Patriot Ledger, Newton Tab…) or visiting any owned website and know right away which company is running it (Gatehouse, or whomever). Instead of one large investment, they are presenting lots of small investments where one thinks they aren’t leveraging resources
I know first hand that redesigning websites are never easy. Redesigning templates that will suit the needs of multiple communities is especially challenging. So when clicking on something doesn’t work quite right, I’d suggest giving them a pass on that. Things never work right upon launch.
The part that does trouble me are all the non-Newton news, sports, entertainment, business reports, etc. that now appear on the homepage. I go to Wicked Local Newton to find out what’s happening in Newton, not Sochi (unless it’s about a Newton-bred athlete at Sochi.)
I also hope the TAB Blog will ultimately finds a prominent home on the new Wicked Local homepage and that Mayor Warren gets his gold necklace back.
This was posted yesterday. I must have overlooked it. Glad to hear, thanks Emily.
Why was the new design released with all these bugs still happening? It’s kinda like the Obamacare website.
Greg, it looks like Setti’s crime spree has ended, and that he is now the keynote speaker at tomorrow’s Newton Republican caucus.