The Way We Were

Check out a brief visual history of Poynter Online.

As soon as Jim Romenesko broke the news of a revamped Poynter Online Wednesday, the encouraging advice began flying our way.

"Ain't broke," wrote Jim Cramer, founder of TheStreet.com, in an e-mail to Romenesko. "Don't fix."

From the Las Vegas Sun, columnist Tim McDarrah cautioned: "Remember New Coke."

We realize that messing with a good thing has its risks. Here's the story of the better thing we're shooting for.

Two practical concerns drive the changes you see here today.

What You'll Need

Internet Explorer The site works with all browsers, but works best with IE. Macromedia Flash We highly recommend you install the very latest version of the free Flash player. Adobe Acrobat Many books and reports that are not available as web pages are available on Poynter Online as PDFs.  Apple Quicktime When not in Flash 6, video on Poynter Online will be streamed with Quicktime.

One is size. Poynter.org has grown to more than 10,000 pages, way too many for a small staff to maintain coherently at the same time we're building new pages every day by hand. Our old-fashioned architecture also made it hard to provide some of the functions users have come to expect from their favorite websites: e-mailing a page quickly and easily to a friend or colleague, attaching their comments directly to an article that's provoked their response, and customizing features according to their own interests. That's the second concern.

The new Poynter Online is a database-driven site that addresses those concerns and a whole lot more.

You can read the entire site without registering, but you'll need to let us know who you are in order to use such customized features as feedback and e-mail newsletters. The required info for registration is minimal (name and e-mail address), and you decide how much info to share with other readers.

Registration also creates a personal page where you can manage a range of new services (details below) available on Poynter Online. We believe the personal page will prove to be a powerful tool for users interested in creating an interactive community of journalists. For users more interested in visiting the site for a specific purpose and getting back to work without interacting, no problem -- no registration required.

Even if we've managed to make this good thing better, we recognize that it's only a matter of time before we'll need to make it better yet. (The old Poynter.org, after all, was only the latest in a string of re-designs dating back to 1994) We welcome your help in deciding what needs fixing next.

Here's a quick tour of the new Poynter Online:

Navigation. You'll find three navigation tools on every page: the navigation bar on the left, the search box on the top right, and the QuickLink system on the top and bottom.

QuickLink IDs. Now, almost every page on Poynter Online has a unique QuickLink code listed in the upper-right corner. You can use these codes however you like: Jot them down as a quick reference; e-mail them to colleagues; or use them as a fast way to link to Poynter Online content. Simply type a code into the QuickLink box to go instantly to the page you want.

Registration. To get access to all of the benefits of Poynter Online, we're now asking you to register with us.

How to register. Registering on Poynter Online is quick and easy -- just click 'New User' in the upper-right corner of the page. We'll ask you for some basic information, and then set you up with a Personal Page.

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Personal Pages. Everyone who registers will have a Personal Page. You can use this as a home base and online bio -- though how much information it provides is strictly up to you. Here's what it includes.

• News Feeds. Courtesy of Moreover.com, Poynter offers comprehensive news feeds covering hundreds of topics. You can subscribe to as many as you like and access them all from your Personal Page.

• My Organizer. Your Personal Page can show you a calendar of journalism events, and remind you when they're coming up. You can also enter personal events in the calendar, viewable only by you.

• Feedback. Your Personal Page also keeps track of all the feedback you've added to Poynter Online articles.

• My Favorite Links. There's a place for you to add your favorite links.

• Bio. You can include a short bio with information on your education and employment.

• Privacy settings. And finally, you can control exactly which of these things the rest of the world sees.

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Here's what else is new at Poynter Online:

Feedback. There are more opportunities than ever to give feedback and discuss articles with colleagues.

Headline of the Day. Once you've registered, you can submit headlines -- weird and serious -- as contenders for Headline of the Day. Even if you don't submit, you can still vote to help determine the day's winner.  You may only vote once, but that vote can be changed at any point during the day.  Voting is cut off at midnight, EST.

Ethics Tool. The Poynter/ASNE Ethics Tool can help you and your colleagues work your way through ethical challenges. It's a step-by-step process that will focus your thoughts and reveal your principles. The Ethics Tool won't give you any answers -- but it will help you find them yourself.

E-mail this page. Now you can e-mail a Poynter Online article, along with a note from you, directly to anyone you choose.

Print this page. Nearly every article can be automatically formatted for easy printing.

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There you have it -- the new Poynter Online. Please explore and enjoy, and don't forget to let us know what you think.