First impressions of AnnArbor.com, Part 2 (Web edition)

Two key ways AnnArbor.com differs from most newspaper Web sites:

1. Presentation of news. While most news sites to some extent copy the basic concept of the front page of a newspaper — the editors choose the most important or interesting stories to showcase and put them front and center — AnnArbor.com more closely resembles a blog, with news presented as more of a reverse-chronological stream.

As Ben Cohen at the Nieman Lab notes, “[t]he main limitation of such a format are obvious: namely, that a big story can be washed away by a torrent of small ones.” But Cohen also reports that chief content officer Tony Dearing says a solution is in the works — down the road, it’ll be possible to treat a given story differently if it deserves extra attention.

2. Advertising format. Instead of a more conventional banner approach, ads appear alongside editorial content, and they behave like blog entries — you see a headline, and you can click on it to go to a new page with more details. The ads are separated from independent editorial content by being given a different background color and a little red flag off to the right that says “Deal.”

One thing I’m curious about: Is the “Deal” branding going to appeal to every advertiser, or will it eventually turn out there’s a demand for a different way of labeling things? I can picture a high-end luxury retailer saying “You know, this ‘deal’ thing doesn’t really make sense for my marketing plan … my stuff is expensive and there’s a reason for it, and that’s what I want people to think of when they see my name.” Of course, that’s probably not a big problem to change if the need arises.

Three things I especially like about the site:

1. It’s easy to crunch the news however you like it. The first couple of times I scrolled through the main page, I thought “You know, there’s not a whole lot on this page that I want to read.” Then I clicked on the “news” tab, and suddenly there were a whole lot of stories I wanted to read. (It’s not just the standard news/sports/entertainment divisions … see next sentence.) If you experiment for a couple of days — “What does it look like if I click on News / Featured Posts? How about News / Most Popular? News / Everything?” — you’re likely to find the mode of presentation that most often gives you things you’re interested in. You can also view by neighborhood (although I’m not in a good position to test that feature in any meaningful way, living 45 minutes away from Ann Arbor and not being too familiar with the neighborhoods).

2. Commenting feels like an organic part of the site, not an afterthought. On the individual story page, there’s a large “Your Voice” header at the bottom of the copy with comments below. On the index page, each story lists the number of comments currently posted on it. A “Your Voice” section is featured prominently on the main page with an excerpt. One additional thing I’d like to see is a “Recent Comments” block in a sidebar — on other sites, I find that a list of recent comments is a good tool for discovering stories I otherwise would have missed, or stories that I read a few days ago and didn’t realize had sparked an interesting discussion.

3. They’re not reluctant to link out. For example, this link to a CBS News report on a camp at U-M for kids with disabilities.

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