Weblog for New Media Storytelling

Posted: 12:30 p.m. 11/5/01

Tabloid Web design: SHOCKING!

When Matt Drudge brought to my attention this week the British tabloid report that Michael Jackson could have anthrax, I was immediately concerned.

Wait, no. Amused is the word I was looking for. And of course I clicked to find out more. This event had the potential to be worse than "Jacko on his backo."

But, at the News of the World site, I was disappointed. Sure, the interview with Michael was conducted through his psychic, and, yes, Michael did think he and his kids all had anthrax because they were sick, and, to be honest, I was glad he confirmed my long-held suspicions that he and Princess Diana had talked of marriage. The News of the World, however, has some major work to do on their Web site.

The tabloids may go about their work a bit differently, but that's no excuse for poor Web design. The News of the World has a drab look, with a surprising lack of brightness in their photographs and menus, but has its biggest problems with its page structure. News of the World presents little above the fold in their article pages, a result of a massive page header and empty space surrounding a right-side menu bar.

By the time I scrolled to the interview, I got a feeling that I was deep within the page. If others feel this way too, the site surely has low stickiness. The menu frame at the top of the page shuts one in, and the sea of blue on the right keeps one firmly in the article. This design may encourage people to keep reading, but doesn't offer much in the way of options.

The top frame persists throughout their site, automatically knocking down the amount of available real estate on every page. But as static as this menu is, right-side menus seem to appear and disappear without any good reason. The right bar on the front bar is different than the one on the Jackson interview, and an article in the Sports had a third bar type. Viewers are likely to feel confused by this and, combined with Web claustrophobia, unwelcome as visitors.

As the British tabloids go, the Sun has much better online design. In addition to simply being brighter and more colorful, the Sun makes better use of their space, creating a wide-open design conducive to vertical scrolling. Although they don't maximize their "above-the-fold" potential, everything has its place. The different sections are referred to in nearly static menu bars, and, within the main bar, the different features are boxed off (News, Sport, Bizarre, Life, Sun Fun, Webchats). The individual boxes are done in a compact fashion, and the overall content of the page is also brief. This combination makes the page very manageable and takes the chore-like feeling out of scrolling.

But on the American side of "the pond," where Web design once posed as king, American Media Inc. has unfortunately worked themselves into the same situation as News of the World. They are trapped in their designs. The American Media papers (National Enquirer, Weekly World News, etc.) follow their print models closely, with one major feature spot on their front page along with several small quick-hit, big-news items. But they fail to realize that viewers can't flip through a Web site like they can a magazine and notice the rest of the stories in addition to those on the cover. By blowing out so much space on their Web front pages for these major features, they lose other options for viewers to click.

Weekly World News at least gives viewers menu options for their regulars and also offers message boards (right above the link to the Bat Boy special section). WWN producers seem to be the most active among the U.S. tabloids is utilizing technology; the Perl-driven message boards are hosted on-site. They even include the infamous pop-up window on their site to promote a headline from their newest issue: "WHISTLING FISH SERENADE FISHERMAN WITH 'GOD BLESS AMERICA'!"