Not much time to blog today, but kudos should be given to the Citizen, Gloucestershire Echo and the Forester who seem to be among the few local papers who have learned what the internet is for. The papers have been updating This Is Gloucestershire practically every hour or so since the crisis hit the region, and online there isn’t any better source of information. Users have used the site to give thanks to those who have helped out in the crisis and ex-pats from all over the world have been able to send their thoughts to readers. There’s a strong use of photography throughout and the site is loaded with video.
This is great - this is exactly the sort of thing local papers need to be thinking about - using the internet as a direct connection to their readers and keeping them updated when the newspaper cannot. Now Northcliffe needs to think about their web design and how it can be adapted for extraordinary events such as this. At the moment the site simply lists stories as they are uploaded - there’s no hierarchical system indicating the most important story or a scroll with breaking news. This is a common fault across the Northcliffe stable. The drive to make the most of the internet is certainly there - now designers just have to pull their fingers out to meet their journalists’ ambition.
