The power of something new

If you haven’t noticed, the Honolulu Advertiser has re-designed their web site. At first, I didn’t like. It was difficult to find what I wanted because everything moved.

In the past week I’ve become more accustomed to the new design, and my initial impression needs to be withdrawn. The NEW Advertiser online has entered the 21st century with a new face, new features, more graphics and video, and more reader involvement– all the prerequisites of success for a newspaper in the 21st century.

There’s video reports. There’s blogs (the same thing as HawaiiBlogger but the writers actually get paid). There’s photo galleries.

Even more important, there’s Forums and Comments sections. That means readers can become somewhat involved in creating additional content for the online newspaper. The Advertiser site does one thing that used to be taboo, but is the norm these days– it requires a web browser user to scroll down to find more information.

The Calendar of Events is excellent, providing a point and click to what’s happening and when. Highlighted home page articles get their own photos, usually three at a time (I’d prefer more), and a quick link to the rest of the story.

All in all, well done. There’s only one thing missing. Charlie Memminger. He writes for the rival paper, the Star-Bulletin. Their web site is not as attractive or modern, though it loads into the web browser faster. I read the Star-Bulletin because of Charlie Memminger.