USA Today's new layout

[spikechiquet]

Um...yuck?

http://jimromenesko.com/2012/09/13/here-is-the-redesigned-usa-today/

Plus, they got rid of the "paper" in their slogan. Now it's: "The Nation's News"

 

[FileNotFound]

My first verbalized reaction: "You've got to be ****ing kidding me."

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Deck chairs, Titanic. Rinse. Repeat.

 

[Armchair_QB]

That looks like ****.

That looks like ass.

 

[RubberSoul1979]

It looks like a ****ing PTA newsletter, but should we be surprised?

 

[Armchair_QB]

THEY'RE ****IN' HORRIBLE LOOKIN'!!!

 

[trifectarich]

When I give a damn about anything USA Today does, that'll be a first.

 

[slc10]

It is way too clean and basic. I don't think it stands out in a good or bad manner.

 

[Alma]

Oh, it's not that bad.

Why trap that much white space in the banner though?

 

[sm72]

They tried to make it look like a Web page, which was a horrible mistake from the get-go. If you want people to buy print, you have to make it different from what you put online. That's why you buy something: because it offers a feature you can't get elsewhere. Whoever thought "Oh, readers look at the Internet more so let's make the pages look like the Internet!" had their head ridiculously far up their ass.

There's innovative and there's trying to be too cute. This is the latter.

 

[SalukiNC]

How long before all Gannett papers look like this?

 

[TigerVols]

Bought one today (of course I did -- I'm living in a hotel!).

First glance, it looks like a poorly designed full-page advertorial from the ad department, only the advertorial runs page after page. A mishmash of fonts, weird white space, but plenty of room for ads on editorial pages (an 1/8th page box on A1, versus the usual horizontal bottom strip.

On further look, it gets worse. They tout more use of color, but looked to me to be far less colorful. The section headers (a big circle, sometimes tweaked to match a story on the page) is just stupid.

Overall, they took a unique, interesting product...and down-res'ed it, as we say in TV. Looks like a local Gannett paper, which I guess is appropriate since there were several local paper bylines throughout.

 

[linotype]

They tried to make it look like a Web page, which was a horrible mistake from the get-go. If you want people to buy print, you have to make it different from what you put online. That's why you buy something: because it offers a feature you can't get elsewhere. Whoever thought "Oh, readers look at the Internet more so let's make the pages look like the Internet!" had their head ridiculously far up their ass.

There's innovative and there's trying to be too cute. This is the latter.

Not surprising. The original USA Today newspaper boxes were designed to look like a TV set.

USA Today: Trying to mimic other forms of media since 1982.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Really . . . what do you expect from an outfit which features Cal "I'm 100% wrong, 74% of the time" Thomas? . . . not to mention, an epic Jeopardy incompetent.

 

[DanOregon]

Looks like the website has gone live. It's interesting.

 

[wicked]

Only the beta version of the new site is up.

http://beta.usatoday.com/

I don't get it.

 

[DanOregon]

It's weird - I like pictures as much as anyone, but when I'm looking for news, I want to know what something is about. It's one of the reasons Google and Yahoo News gets so many hits, you can see what's going on, get in and get out. I realize it might not be great for advertisers, but that's what I like as a news consumer. I always bail out on pretty much all videos attempting to tell me what happened. Show, don't tell.

 

[TigerVols]

Only the beta version of the new site is up.

http://beta.usatoday.com/

I don't get it.

"Today's College GameDay in One Photo" fills a need for no one. And besides, they cropped out Smokey's epic asshole appearance, which is already becoming the stuff of legend in K-ville.

 

[crusoes]

You probably didn't get the "Cool Balls" memo.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Only the beta version of the new site is up.

http://beta.usatoday.com/

I don't get it.

Personally, I love it. With the way digital is moving (tablets and Windows 8 about to be released), it's ahead of the curve. As much as I love a mouse and keyboard, touchscreens are really starting to make up a large part of the market. Windows 8, which is a beautiful OS when used properly, will make the new USA Today site make more sense.