Tt comment oct 28, 2015

#media #toledo #design

jimavolt : "Without their opinions and occasional news being delivered in printed format, the Blade will become a one-sided Swampbubbles, where loud mouths simply post passages that piss on the thoughts and convictions of others. Do we need another troll taking up bandwidth?"

Could you elaborate? I don't understand. Are you talking about Facebook comments that may exist at the bottom of a Blade web article or something else?

foodie88 : "Also, for some reason it takes longer to read the entire paper online. I just don't like the way it's set up. It's probably all about the first reason I mentioned. I'm old. Sigh."

No, it's not user error. It sounds like a design flaw in how the digital content is displayed. Can you also elaborate? Which digital property were you trying to access at the Blade:

• eBlade
• native app
• mobile website
• desktop/laptop website

Why do you think that it takes longer? Is is the font size, font type, layout, etc?

A lot of so-called "old" people read books on a Kindle or on a regular tablet and even a phone.

Why can "old" people read books on a smallish digital device, but news stories are somehow clunky to read on a mobile device?

If I was king of the Blade, I would start over and eliminate all current digital offerings and then build only one main website for all stories. At most, I would allow the native mobile app to exist too if it provided real value to readers.

But I also like the idea of creating niche websites that have their own domain names, such as this story project that the Blade produced this year:

http://www.littlesyriatoledo.com

foodie88, if you accessed the littlesyriatoledo.com link on a mobile device or on a laptop/desktop, is that site also clunky to read?

Anyway, the main website would contain all stories, produced by the Blade, but I would also try cross-posting some of those stories to small, Blade-owned websites that have their own domain names and would be narrowly focused and possibly temporary or seasonal, such as a Toledo Area Food Scene site, a 2015 Toledo Election site, and a Toledo Winter Weather site.

It's not quite unbundling since the stories on the narrowly-focused sites would still exist at the main site. If collecting and renewing domains names sounds like a pain, then use sub-domains. But hopefully, the content management system would permit each "site" to be themed differently.

I would also create a wiki-like Toledo region historical site that would be based upon all of the Blade content that it has created in its history or as much as possible. And more data-driven projects.