Why Fresno Bee Why
Dear Fresno Bee,
Why do you insist on taking something good and destroying it?
First you redesigned Fresno Famous and made it look cheap, resulting in posters leaving.
Now you redesigned the Fresno Bee online. I'm all for change, if it is good change. Your new changes make the Bee look cheap. Half of the links are dead links. I couldn't even get the customer service links to work. Page not found was a common sight there this morning.
Every section of the online version now sucks.
Even the letters to the editor section sucks. There used to be at least a one sentence preview of letters. You could read the first line and decide if the letter interested you.
I really hope that the Bee figures out all the bugs(there appeared to be many) worked out.
I enjoy reading the paper online as I only subscribe to the weekend printed paper. I normal enjoyed reading the online version everyday. Until this morning.
What a waste of a good site.
I found at least 15 dead links, and the general cheap look is really sad. Don't change what is not broken. Seems like you made a bigger mess to me.
Word to
the bashful one
Diablo
I just wish the Bee would
I just wish the Bee would have worked out the bugs before launching the new site. Today the comments section still wouldn't work. The pages take longer to load, and certain sections(letters to editor) look terrible.
Feed Readers?
Haven't you guys ever heard of feed readers? I aggregate all my news sources to read every day into one simple feed reader (Google Reader). Unless I need to find a specific article there really is no reason anymore to visit individual news sites that much.
It's looking bad out there
The Tribune is filing Ch. 11. Print media is slowly dying. The overall economy is in its worst condition since the Great D. I'm assuming that McClatchy has a big debt burden on the purchase of Knight Ridder.
FresnoBee... you might be the big media and I'm speculating that some people want you gone... but I don't.
You are important, very important to our community. Please stop screwing up your new media assets as it is likely your future platform.
You launched a redesign, with dead links and some going to the old style/layout... Why not provide a link to the old layout so that your users could go back to the old look/feel while you tweak the new design. It's a no-brainer... Facebook did it, Yahoo! too... So that should have been brought up during your launch meeting as that tactic is pretty common.
I am a start-up publisher (online only) "co-opeting" with you for internet audience. But nevertheless, this community NEEDS a newspaper. I wish you all the best and I hope that you ride this one out...
For all that it's worth, fresnobeehive still rocks.
- Socient
fresnobee.com
I'm not that happy with the change either, but I'll adapt.
Not even sure what it is that bothers me. Hopefully over time I'll be able to put my finger on it and send suggestions there after. Until then I'll still use it cause it's free.
Abe
I never said I was insulted
I never said I was insulted by your blog. If I was I would have flagged it. What I did was posted a link for you to send your comments to someone at the Bee that would see them.
I haven't experienced any problems either. But it's their first day, like Bryan said cut them some slack. If the problems continue to persist, that's the time to get annoyed.
I never found
the "7" section in their online version. The old online version was clunky and weird to navigate. I Totally did no enjoy trying to read articles in it. I'd rather have an entire glossary on the main page with page numbers and article names, with quick popups/bubbles linked to my arrow/cursor with more info on the article, and have to drudge through all that than try and poke around forever trying to find something that may or may not be there.
Whatever the case, I think demographics for them is part of their problem. The X generation is proving hard for them to directly market to. We may as well be called the Internet Generation. So you have this old business of newspapers trying to adapt to people who use digital information more than printed. No offense to any of them, but I wonder who is really calling the shots for their paper/business, cause I have a feeling they are kind of behind on the techno-geek end and are in need of letting go of older ways in order to adapt.
Keep trying, you'll get it. Just don't be thinking that there's a one shot fix. Learn, adapt, overcome, repeat till success.
Diablo
give some slack
I like the redesign, it's a much cleaner look and the comments, videos, and blogs are much better integrated.
I haven't experienced any dead links, etc, but you gotta cut 'em some slack. Testing a new design behind closed doors is a lot different than going live to tens of thousands of people. Inevitably there's going to be hiccups in the system. Give 'em at least a day or two to clean that up. A lot of work goes into redesigns.
-Bryan
We have the best delivery
We have the best delivery persons now. Shari and her daughter do a great job. They always make sure to get the paper right at the front door. Such a hard job, 4am 7 days a week.
Also, in defense of the Bee, I got a nice note back from J Ward at the Bee saying the comments link was fixed and was back on.
This morning when I
This morning when I attempted to send this to the Bee, the links on their site were all dead links, including the comment section on articles, or I would have.
If you feel insulted by my blog, then don't read it, problem solved.
Contact them
Instead of insulting the person on a forum that they may not see, why not contact them directly? The info for the person is on this link.
http://www.fresnobee.com/updates/photo/story/1063868.html
They won't get me back to
They won't get me back to the daily printed version. They raised the price on daily home delivery and the service got worse.
At least twice a week my paper was missing in action and a few times a week it would be wet(not due to my sprinklers). I would call and complain by 10am. Sometimes I would recieve a new paper the same day, other times the paper would never arrive.
I even requested that the carrier place the paper on my doorstep instead of the end of my drive-way. They failed to do so, so I simply cancelled the paper altogether.
I would just walk to the corner and buy a paper from the machine. That didn't last long as the newspaper machine disappeared to never return.
I finally broke down and got the Sunday delivery. Finally, I guess they got tired of my bitching, and they started putting the paper on my doorstep.
I still refuse to get daily delivery. The expense is to much for me, so I just read the paper online on the off days.
I'm not against changes, but don't make the changes negative ones. The paper used to look nice and professional, now it looks cheap.
I wonder if maybe a local grade school designed it, because it certainly looks that way.
Bee website new look
I saw it in the paper this morning, (the hard copy is way better than online) and thought,
oh good, I can go over there and comment on it.
I liked the look better, all white background with dark letters and less stuff on the main page gives a cleaner look like Yahoo, Google and Huffington Post. Went to comment, took 5 minutes to compose flattering praise and got:
"Commenting is currently experienceng
technical difficulties. We value your input, please try submitting your comment later. We apologize for the inconvenience."
Why didn't they make sure everything worked properly before going public?
Maybe they're trying to
Maybe they're trying to drive people back to the print version. At least that stupid ad that always rolled out of the top right corner is gone...for now, anyway.
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