Today, November 15, the Rocky Mountain News launched its latest web revamp, and the design team deserves kudos. The look of the home page and beyond is clean, open and very readable, and as a bonus, everything loads much more quickly, improving a major problem with the previous permutation.
And now for the bad news: some significant technical glitches are cropping up at this hour, with content items surfacing where they don't belong. Shortly before 11 a.m., for instance, the featured item on the main pages of both Sports and Entertainment was a link, complete with an oversized photo, to a story about New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was in Denver the previous night to speak to the National Congress of American Indians. And here are the main stories as they appeared under the "Top Sports News" banner:
Suthers to dissect Ritter's order on unions Historic shift likely Udalls aplenty in '08 races Highway upkeep a hot potato Tancredo raises fear factor with new ad Clinton woos American Indian voters via satellite feed from Iowa DNC chief, media to tour Pepsi Center Host committee launches small-donor campaign Ritter might seek tax hike for one of three issues Winning back the White House
What were the headliners in the "Top Entertainment News" category? The same list of stories above. As for the pieces that qualified as "Top Business News," they broke the mold in a big way, with "Team First For Tulowitzki" and "Rockies Point For Ultimate" leading the pack.
Of course, things change quickly on the web, and by 11:30 a.m., as I write, things are different. For instance, the Business page is headed by a shot of a glammed-out babe on a catwalk under the heading "Work It!" That's my kind of business. -- Michael Roberts