Dear Colleagues:

These are busy, interesting times at Poynter. We're building a new version of Poynter Online, and we've realigned the staff to help us do a better job delivering what you need.

Poynter Online faces an intriguing challenge -- just like the Institute it represents and the news organizations it serves: How do we change to reflect the rapidly shifting demands of our audiences without compromising our commitment to the enduring needs of the journalism community?

With a lot of help from you, we're about to find out.

By mid-December, we expect to have the beginnings of a new site available for review. Based partly on your feedback, we'll unveil a Beta in the First Quarter of 2008 and launch the new site as soon as we're satisfied it delivers what you need.

This past summer, more than 2,000 of you responded to our invitation to let us know what you like (and like less) about the site. About 700 of you volunteered to help, and we'll be following up with you soon.

Among our biggest surprises was how much you like the site as it is. It was a great reminder worthy of posting on the walls of Web teams everywhere: Be careful what you change. This is not an argument against innovation, just a reminder that most every change carries a cost as well as a benefit.

You also pointed out something we already knew about the site: It's cluttered.

Some other highlights from our research and subsequent usability testing included:

• You're ready for some serious professional networking.
• You're hungry for news about news, and you're looking for examples of best practices in a number of areas.
• No consensus has emerged about horizontal vs. left-rail navigation, but you do have strong ideas about the look and feel of the site.

We have plans in the works in each of these areas. 

Finally, we promise not to pester you with too many e-mails about the redesign. We'll be blogging the redesign on a page that you'll be able to subscribe to as an e-mail newsletter or an RSS feed. Our redesign blog will start in December. We realize every news organization we serve is either in the midst of a redesign, coming out of one or viewing one on the horizon. We hope to go to school on your experience -- and invite you to do likewise.

We look forward to working with you along the way.

Best regards,

Bill Mitchell
Director, Poynter Online

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