July 18, 2002, 10:46 PM ET
Knight Ridder sites regain some design control
Steve Outing reports Knight Ridder has backed off from its strategy of applying the same design to several Web sites in its chain. (Example: The Miami Herald vs. The San Jose Mercury News vs. The Kansas City Star.) Here are the only design details the article provides:
Local newspapers in the KR chain now have more control over their own Web sites -- with the ability to decide for themselves (mostly) what they wish to emphasize (city.com vs. newspaper.com) and more control over how their sites look. They have more options for making the sites best reflect their communities, rather than be saddled with a corporate-wide design.
Despite the fact that there were a few too many "more"s and "mostly"s in there -- and not enough "all"s or "completely"s -- it's good to see Knight Ridder's changing its tune. As many have said before, the current sites are completely devoid of character, horrid examples of cookie-cutter design. (One KR online editor was so frustrated he wrote a letter to his readers apologizing for the design and explaining his helplessness.)
This is great news. I hope it doesn't take long for the sites to redesign.
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