Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

New Boston.com: Nooooooooooo

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There seems to have been a redesign on boston.com. It looks awful, like pinterest crossed with gawker, yet so much white space. It doesn’t even look like a newspaper and there’s not much news actually on there. It’s also ofter not clear just what it is you’re getting when (article, multi-media, vid) you click on something. Boston.com has problems, but it’s useful now. This does not look useful. I really hope this is just a test or a glitch or something.

Boston,_MA_news,_breaking_news,_sports,_video_Boston.com_-_2014-04-15_02.55.55

Update- seems to be back to normal. Please let this not be a preview of changes to come. I uploaded a screen shot of what it looked like, but can’t get it to display.

Update2- Dang, it’s back. I should have taken a screen shot last night of the last moments of boston.com that was useful.

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Comments

  1. It’s completely redesigned, and nearly useless. I have never understood exactly what the Globe was doing with its parallel-ish websites, boston.com and bostonglobe.com. Maybe they are phasing out boston.com?

    • Though I agree this hasn’t been the most transparent process, the Globe has indicated their intentions. And it’s certainly not to phase out boston.com altogether.

      They have released an “internal” memo about the changes (see e.g.: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/242132/boston-globe-drops-paywall-adds-meter-instead/)

      According to that memo, the intent seems to be to keep bostonglobe.com as essentially a digital version of the newspaper with boston.com as its’ own, quasi-independent news operation. From the McGrory memo:

      Third, we’ve begun the tough but critical work this week of further separating bostonglobe.com and boston.com to create a pair of even more distinct and distinctive sites that will live happily and healthily apart. And yes, they’ll even compete with each other. The intention over the next many weeks is to move all Globe-originated content – staff blogs, chats, videos, and more – to bg.com, where it can be widely read by a larger audience not hindered by a paywall. This will allow bg.com to reflect the full, vibrant, lively personality of this entire room. At the same time, boston.com will remain a news site at its core, but with a sharper voice that better captures the sensibilities of Boston. We’ll have a few openings on boston.com that we’re looking to fill with more content originators (forgive the parlance), and we’re encouraging all producers to create as well as aggregate more vibrant content. As part of the separation, we’ll relocate the entire boston.com enterprise in the media lab, all producers and editors, in a move that is targeted for next week. The redesigned boston.com will launch on mobile late this month and on desktop in early April.

      • ..be able to find “bostonglobe.com” on boston.com

        It don’t mind change, even like it. But so far, it’s thumbs down on the new boston.com

  2. I realized, about a month ago, that Boston.com was no longer a newspaper site, and it was more interested in getting me to click on “top 10 blue houses east of Boston” lists.

    I changed my browser to go to BostonGlobe.com instead.

  4. I’m getting the new BETA version and it’s just terrible. I didn’t mind the old version but maybe it’s just because I was used to it.

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