Straits Times redesigned, part 1

New product development can be a highly complex exercise. The outcome of it often reveals a lot about management processes within a company. 

For example, the long delay in Airbus' delivery of the double-decker A380 showed up a critical organisational weakness -– the failure to integrate its German and French arms to the point where they were using different and incompatible software to design the superjumbo's electrical system.

Front page, new look

 
With great fanfare, Singapore's leading English newspaper, the Straits Times, relaunched itself on 8 August 2008, both in print and online. What the initial results seem to show is that, despite its claims of moving steadily to exploit and embrace digital technology, the newspaper pays a lot more attention to, and knows what to do with, its print version than its internet version. This is evident from the fact that while the new print version is cleaner and slicker, the new digital versions (and there are three!) are quite a mess.

Moreover, while the newspaper had in its prior publicity talked about better integration between its print and online versions as one of the major objectives of the redesign, it can be argued that the online versions are going off in different directions.

Part 1 will include some overall comments and more detail about the new print version. Part 2 will be the horror story -– the online versions.

The first rule of new product development must surely be not to launch a product until it has been fully tested. While the new print version looks done, the online versions look half-baked.

The question then is: Why was the launch date not pushed back? Why force the new online versions to go live when they're such a mess? Could it be that the management is so focussed on print that they don't think the online mess important?

One clue may be this: The Editor, Han Fook Kwang, in his fullpage discussion of the revamp, devoted four-fifths of his piece to the changes in the print version. Only the last one-fifth mentioned the online material. And even then, one bit was misleading. He said,

For our subscribers who want to read all of our ST stories online, they can do so in our ST Digital site which will continue to be subscription-based. You can access it at www.straitstimes.com

Erm... not really. The cited URL, www.straitstimes.com, does not take you to the online mirror of the full newspaper, called ST Digital. It only takes you to the Breaking News site. From there, you have to click again to get to Digital.

Another variant of the question is: Does the management not even realise that the new online version is a mess? If they didn't, it begs the question whether they even know what a good online version should look like.

* * * * *

Han described the various changes they made to the look of the print edition. These included new colours and typeface. But what was most striking to me -- and I compliment them for it -- was the ease of navigation that resulted from a reorganisation of the sections, due in large part to adopting the internet practice of having an hierarchy (see sidebar).

Below are two more photos I took to illustrate their new look:

Opening page of a section

Typical page of a subsection, in this case, "World.international"

 
On 8 August, both Parts A and B had 38 pages each, suggesting that the intention may be to have these parts more or less equal in bulk, though from day to day, there will be variances. If so, I wonder if there has been a quiet editorial decision to shift the balance of the news. Notice how Part A has many more sections squeezing into it, while Part B only accommodates local news, sports and Money.

Does that mean more space is being provided for Part B's content dealing with local news, sports and business reporting -- the areas where blogs and other online sources do not quite compete?

If this is the case, the corollary would be less investment in foreign news and commentary (Part A). These happen to be areas where there's an inexhaustible buffet online. Perhaps the Straits Times finds it an uphill task keeping up with the competition, and is reprioritising itself accordingly? I hope not.

Part 2 will discuss what I saw on the revamped Straits Times online sites.

© Yawning Bread 

Footnotes

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Addenda

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