If I were JS reporter Nick Vlahos, I would be royally PISSED at the morons who run the newspaper’s Website.
First, go to the front page of the PJStar.com and try to find ANY reporting on last night’s Peoria City Council meeting. Look really hard. Did you find it? Me neither. Because it’s not there. This is the CITY COUNCIL meeting I’m asking about. It should be the lead story, and it’s no where to be found.
You have to look for the text link that reads “Read more top stories.” You have to scroll down a bit and look at the middle of the page. Click it.
And once you click it, you will be bombarded with popup ads. Some of them pop up twice.
And the article STILL isn’t there.
You have to click on a link after scrolling down a bit AGAIN. Click where is says “Next 10.’
And the same popup ads appear. Apparently, the JS’s Web bosses think if you make a popup ad appear EVERY SINGLE TIME TO CLICK ON ANY LINK, YOU WILL CLICK EVENTUALLY ON IT. Every single other Web designer on this planet knows the opposite is true.
Finally, you see an article “City Council defers Northwest Peoria land-use changes, again”
But alas.
The article is divided into two pages.
In the first place, newspaper companies are the only entities STUPID enough to think digital articles have to be divided. IT’S THE INTERNET STUPID. On a dead-tree printed page, there is only room to print so much text. You HAVE to jump long articles.
THERE IS NO SUCH NEED ON THE WEB. NONE. A Web page is as long as you need it to be. The page will get deeper if you add more copy. There is no fundamental reason to make a story JUMP to a new page.
Well, except if you want the ads on the page to load onto reader’s computers more than once, boosting “hit” counts for your ads.
It’s utterly, completely dishonest. But then, this is newspapers.
And here is the kicker in the case. Page one of Nick Vlahos otherwise acceptable digital article ends with this line: “It is adjacent to Bobbette Pickelle’s residence.”
Page 2 of the Web article is the form to enter comments. No text at all. None.
I checked the dead-tree print version. I found eight additional paragraphs that are completely missing from the Web version.
And here’s the thing: Every time I’ve looked at a Journal Star recently, the site has been messing up this way. It’s been this way for AT LEAST a month.
Do they not care? Is there no one at the Journal Star who hasn’t noticed? Maybe they have, but they don’t know how to get help from GateHouse Media, the company that FORCED this horrible CMS system on them). Because I’m thinking that they’d do a lot better with WordPress Multisite.
I cannot see spending 99 cents or whatever the heck they are charging per month. I can’t see spending money on a digital subscription and STILL have to run screaming into the night to buy a dead tree version.
This is a big FAIL. A FAIL for making me search for a recent article. FAIL for making me endure popup after popup. And a FAIL for making me go get a printed version.