2012.04.30
National and international news headlines — where do they fit?
This post is from Managing Editor Michael Stowe.
A few years ago I wrote a column noting how the front page story selection of our printed newspaper has evolved in the past 15 years.
For years, the front page was dominated by the top national and international news. That’s reversed today, with news from the Roanoke and New River valleys featured prominently every day.
Why? You can get national news from dozens of sources — but our newsroom uncovers and tells the stories of Western Virginia better than anyone else.
We used the same philosophy when we launched roanoke.com in 1997 with the goal of making it the destination Web site for news and information about the Roanoke region. The Gateway page of the site is designed to showcase content produced by our staff, content you can’t find anywhere else online.
You might be underwhelmed if you come to roanoke.com hunting for the latest national and world headline. It’s there — look for the link in the left corner of the gateway — but it’s hardly prominent and, if you click on it, you get a text-heavy listing of stories.
We receive calls from readers looking for a non-local story that published in the paper but not on roanoke.com. Currently we don’t archive stories from the Associated Press on our site. But that could change with the redesign.
Do you think it should?
We have an opportunity to rethink how we package and display news from the Associated Press. It will never be the focal point of the site but that doesn’t mean it can’t be better than now. Your feedback to these questions will help us moving forward:
Do you look at roanoke.com for national and international news?
Are there specific topics of content — politics, education … — that you would like to see more prominently displayed on roanoke.com?
Do you have suggestions of other local/regional news Web sites that better integrate national and international stories on their sites?
If not roanoke.com, where do you go online for national news? Why do you like that site?
What other comments do you have in regards to our national and international coverage on roanoke.com?
I do not use roanoke.com for national and international news. I like having a good source for local and regional news. Like you say, content created by your staff.
The only recommendation I can make is to clear out old stories. It appears some sections of roanoke.com retain stories for a long time if nothing new is posted.
I use online resources from CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo for the bigger picture. I’m content with the coverage roanoke.com provides.
Comment by Ernie — April 30, 2012 @ 8:11 am
People who use roanoke.com as their homepage would benefit from having access to national and international headlines, whether they currently realize it or not.
The current website has several spots of under-utilized real estate where an AP ticker could be placed. The widgets underneath the header are essentially deadspace for people who have their browsers log them into their account automatically (additionally, Breaking News is not nearly as prominent as it should be).
A space on the right-hand sidebar above or below adspace could also be used for a stream of Associated Press stories.
While the most eye-grabbing images and site design should draw the reader to RT-exclusive content first, there should be an attractive, non-intrusive area in the header or sidebar for a link to national and international news. If you want to turn roanoke.com into a hub for people to frequent and revisit, this is an essential service from a modern news provider.
Looking forward to the redesign.
Comment by Phillip Murillas — April 30, 2012 @ 12:01 pm
The only concern with solely focusing on local news is that you have a pretty un-diverse portfolio. An up-and-coming news agency, like Patch.com, could easily set-up shop in Roanoke as well as all of the neighboring localities and completely undermine your market share in the local news segment.
That being said, I cannot say I would go to this website for national/international news. I would suggest that The RT focus more on issues that affect western and southwest Virginia — this could let the RT become the market leader in those areas and people from communities that mirror the Valley might look to its news source (the RT) for advice. For example, focusing on rural economic development as well as medium-sized city growth strategies. Doing this, you can still interact with your local communities, but also become the authoritative source for a particular kind of news.
Comment by Ben — May 1, 2012 @ 7:42 am
I think you could certainly add a tab for national/international news without shifting your primary focus from local news. The editorial page already spends the bulk of its time discussing national issues so it isn’t like this would be uncharted territory.
Comment by Chuck — May 1, 2012 @ 12:19 pm
I use roanoke.com all the time. I would like to have the national and international articles on the page as a seperate tab – but my biggest complaint – searching. there is not an effective search tool and when you do search, there are not listed in any order and often are really old. I often refer my mother to an article or another part of the features columns and she cant ever find it either. its embarressing to have to explain away why your local paper’s website is not as effeciant as one for her community that serves a smaller demographic.
My secondary complaint – Kroger and Bergland ads that do not automatically size back down when you have moved away from the ad. its so bad that I often close the page and then reopen in the hopes for a more user friendly ad to scroll at the top. It only occurs with those two retailers with the ribbon ad at the top. I understand advertisement is important and they dont normally bother me and I usualy do read them, but when they take over the entire top half of the page leaving me only the site index to see its frustrating.
Comment by Vickie — May 1, 2012 @ 8:14 pm
I think it would be great to have a link for national and international news to make Roanoke.com a complete one-stop shop. I would use it.
I use Huffington Post daily for a lot of my internet news and I very much like the different tabs “Front Page”, “Politics”, “Business”, “Entertainment”, etc. so that you can go to what strikes your fancy. Certainly politics/government is news we can use, so is education/culture, and business/industry. I don’t know that you need it to be “prominent” but links or tabs would be great.
Since I go to you for local, HuffPo and CNN for national and international, I cannot say if others do it any better. I know many other sites are very “busy” and almost frenetic when you first see the screen and I want to avoid that if possible. I like the clean aesthetic of Roanoke.com and the blogs.
I do not think that national and international coverage is critical for Roanoke.com but it would add to the site if you can manage it and I see nothing wrong with doing it via links and tabs as opposed to a large scale production to see if people take to it.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — May 2, 2012 @ 7:50 am