Romenesko’s readers are the most loyal of those who visit Poynter.org, so I want to extend a special invitation to you to share your feedback about the redesign.
But first, some history. Romenesko has been a part of Poynter for 10+ years, and in that time, we have redesigned the website 3-4 times. Each time we hear the same thing from many of you: “Don’t touch this blog. Change it back. I hate it.” And every time we’re asked (rhetorically), “Why ruin Romenesko’s unique quality by making his blog more like Poynter?”
So here, in advance, are our responses.
Why change this blog? As you might recall, many of you hated the look back in 2008 and told us that the site was cluttered, unfocused and difficult to use (and you’re not the only ones who told us that). Perhaps it’s grown on you, and perhaps this one will, too. Regardless, this change isn’t about the past, it’s about journalism’s future and helping people position themselves within it by providing the news they want and the skills they’ll need.
Why must you try to make Romenesko more like Poynter? Actually, this time we’re trying to make the rest of the site more like Romenesko. No one covers what’s happening in newsrooms & news organizations better. And, a lot of journalism is happening outside news organizations, which is one of the reasons we’ve created the Mobile Media blog, Social Media blog, and the new Media Lab. These new blogs follow Jim’s lead with curation, aggregation and quick highlights. And they appear in the same section as Romenesko (Latest News) because together these blogs explore journalism’s future as it unfolds.
Why did you make it harder to find Romenesko? Romenesko is where he’s always been. You can find him at poynter.org/romenesko or by clicking on Latest News, just like before. He has more company in that section, but he hasn’t moved.
Change is hard. To your credit, many of you initially dislike any change we make and recognize you will adjust. We appreciate that.
Some improvements we plan to make immediately, based on your feedback. We’ve heard the gray font is hard to read in the body of posts, so we will darken that. It’s also difficult to access an individual post for commenting or e-mailing. We’ll fix that quickly as well.
If you have other specific suggestions for how we can improve the experience, please let us know. We are grateful for your loyalty and aim to keep deserving it.
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