In looking at this article on the New York Times website today, something just wasn't right. Informative headline with key content? Check. Links to share, comment and print? Check. Picture of Obama and Geithner looking contemplative?
Check. There is even a small box of related stories, and a video of protesters. Plenty of eye-catching graphics and different text sizes. However, I think the problem is the text of the story itself. It's LONG. I don't typically oppose reading - it's great. But this text is not at all broken up with the exception of paragraph breaks. I feel that bold headings breaking up information - what happened, why you should care, what's next - would be valuable in making the text appear more manageable. Or, instead of putting the picture, video and boxes on the side, they could have centered them to help break up the long blocks of text.
And the Washington Post did the same thing.
CNN had something similar, but I find the links for videos in red that are at the end of several of the paragraphs are somehow breaking points. People may not do it, but it is like you can watch a video after a block of text as a break of some kind, or read text while you wait for it to load. I am much more likely to read something if I am waiting for something else.
I also like CNN's Fact Box, though I wish it had a box or some other graphic element to make it more interesting visually. And, the picture gallery at the top is far more interesting than just one picture. I definitely clicked through all three and like that there is a link to see more. Even the menu at the top of the story has three tabs - Read, Photo and Videos.
Also, credit to all three stories for having links on important words/people throughout for the opportunity to get more information.
