Poor HTML of Newspaper Sites

[Andrew]

Hi,

I have recently cancelled my newspaper delivery and switched to
reading newspapers online. I have been pleased to see so many
newspapers around the world putting their current issues online but
more than a little horrified that the html / css used makes the pages
so difficult to read:

1. Fixed width layout designed for (very) small viewing screen.
2. Font size specified too small, larger size breaks layout
3. Average of 300 (some 600) or so W3C errors per page
3. Screen cluttered with navigation and advertising at the expense of
content.

Does anybody have a better experience with newspaper sites or any
thoughts on some of the failings I have mentioned?

The newspaper sites I regularly look at (not all are equally
difficult to read) are:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/
http://www.smh.com.au/
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
http://www.nytimes.com/
http://www.ireland.com/
http://www.theherald.co.uk/
http://metimes.com/
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/

Thanks for your trouble, hope this question / comment is not a little
OT

Andrew

 

[Andy Dingley]

Does anybody have a better experience with newspaper sites or any
thoughts on some of the failings I have mentioned?

1. Yes. You've only just noticed ?

2. Don't tell us, tell them. You're preaching to the choir here. We
sympathise, but we had already found this out for ourselves. The best
hope seems to be telling the site operators that they have a problem,
and that you (as a valuable pair of ad-reading eyeballs) don't like it.

On the whole though (having worked on magazine sites), you'll get
almost no recognition of the issue from the publishers, let alone an
intention to spend money on fixing it.

 

[rich]

Andrew wrote:

On the whole though (having worked on magazine sites), you'll get
almost no recognition of the issue from the publishers, let alone an
intention to spend money on fixing it.

Maybe, just maybe, if we all work together here... maybe they might
change. And its not only with newspapers and magazines, is it? it goes
onto TV stations sites too (maybe with the exception of the well
thaught out BBC site), but by and large you are correct.

 

[Travis Newbury]

Maybe, just maybe, if we all work together here... maybe they might
change.

Do I see a pig flying out of your ass?

 

[rich]

Do I see a pig flying out of your ass?

What has that pig got anything to do with this topic, eh?

 

[dorayme]

Hi,

I have recently cancelled my newspaper delivery and switched to
reading newspapers online. I have been pleased to see so many
newspapers around the world putting their current issues online but
more than a little horrified that the html / css used makes the pages
so difficult to read:

What would you expect? First, they are websites and websites
generally are like movies, books, why, anything, mostly crap with
islands of excellence...

Second, they are print media and highly unlikely to be rid of the
mindset, a mindset not altogether conducive to website content
delivery.