I’ve been watching how the newspaper and TV sites cover the fires in Southern California, and it’s become very clear that some TV sites are having difficulty showcasing their content. For example, look at 10News.com and KNBC.com, to name a couple. Their standard templates, in my humble opinion, are restricting their coverage on the home page and don’t do much to distinguish this massive story from any other breaking news story. Everything feels like it’s jammed into small, inflexible boxes. In the 10News.com example, a big ad animated across the top of the page, pushing content down and back up again. Story angles get lost in the rotating tabs. Then look at LATimes.com. Clean, straighforward with an expanded coverage area that pops. Yes, I’m comparing apples to oranges in some respects because the LATimes is able to produce much more online content with a much larger staff — but critical information is easier to locate and it feels like a major story:
In another example, MSNBC.com has just switched to its breaking news layout, allowing more content to surface:
Even the SeattlePI.com moved to a big story layout:
If you build a breaking news layout ahead of time, it’s not that much work to execute it when the story breaks. Just flick the switch. TV sites should own breaking news, and a flexible, content-driven design plays a big part.