Jeff Beckham

Todd Zeigler at The Bivings Report offers up nine sensible ways for newspapers to improve their websites. They’re all solid:

1. Start Using Tags
2. Provide Full Text RSS Feeds
3. Work with External “Social” Websites
4. Link to Relevant Blog Entries
5. Get Rid of All Registration
6. Partner with Local Bloggers
7. Offer Alternative Views of Your Content
8. Modernize Your Site’s Graphic Design
9. Learn from Craigslist

He’s since added Make your content work on cell phones and PDAs and another post building on the list based on comments by readers.

So how does Austin’s paper stack up? Pretty well, actually. In fact, the Statesman receives special praise in No. 8: Modernize Your Site’s Graphic Design.

Most of the newspaper sites we looked at had designs straight out of 2001. They used half of the screen real estate available on today’s wide screen monitors and looked sort of like online swap meets. The New York Times and Austin American Statesman are examples of sites with good, modern designs.

I advocated No. 2 (Provide Full Text RSS Feeds) a few months back when the Statesman switched from partial feeds to headlines-only.

The Statesman also does a nice job with No. 6 (Partner with Local Bloggers) via Statesman Blogs. Still, I’d like to see them follow No. 5 (Get Rid of All Registration) as well. I’m not convinced registration in order to deliver targeted ads is really working for newspapers, and it results in a loss of traffic and attention from search engines.

All in all, the list provides a nice checkpoint for newspaper sites to see the types of functionality available to upgrade their sites.