[thelist] C|Net's Redesign / Interesting argument...

[Mike Hardaker]

> >Everything has a context, a slant. On my satellite system, CNN sees (say)
> >the Israeli elections in a different light to that of BBC World.
>
> And BBC World views the news with the influence of the UK government
> who part-fund the World Service.

Or with the views of a bunch of managers who *resent* government
interference and so go out of their way to present an opposing view...

> (I do believe that
> effective sites
> can be beautiful, but only when and if it supports the commercial
> objectives).

Indeed, beauty (whatever that may be...) doesn't hurt, and can even be
beneficial. However, all attempts to beautify must be passed through an "ROI
filter".

Or, as I prefer to think of it: does the beauty make the site work less
well? If so can it. In not: great.

> >A`waste of resources? It costs a *lot* to produce a newspaper.
> It costs more
> >than most people are willing to pay for an advertising-free paper.
>
> But you're thinking in terms of a static (or at best
> editionalised), one-time,
> everyone gets the same paradigm. With personalisation, this is
> not necessarily
> true. There's absolutely no reason why you couldn't have 2 versions of the
> information: ad free (but the user has to bear a fair, economic
> cost), or ad-
> supported (and therefore very cheap or free).

This is true...

> >Nope, it's why it's called "media" - a medium for selling, in short
>
> Nope. Media for *communication*, of which media for selling are a large
> subset. Unless you're thinking that the BBC isn't a media organisation...

I wonder whether the BBC *is* a media organisation. BBC World certainly is,
with its ads and sponsored sections...

As for Chinese walls, I did say "good publishing companies...".

<tip type="CSS">
Always check that your CSS pages degrade well - pulling out the link to your
external stylesheet and seeing if the page renders at all comprehensibly in
even a modern browser is a quick and dirty way to do this. No subtitute for
serious cross-browser testing, but a devent starting-point.
</tip>

Mike

-------------------
Mike Hardaker
Founder & Publisher
AngloINFO
www.angloinfo.com