Newsweek is one of my favorite publications. Not only does it offer national news, it also covers up-and-coming technologies, politics, trends in society, business and health articles, all while capturing my interest, as opposed to merely delivering the news. I have subscribed to the magazine in the past, but no longer have a subscription. I’m going to take a look at Newsweek’s online site to see if it can stand up to its print counterpart.
Upon first glance of the site, it is complete, with current articles on its front page. The articles do not have any obvious bias or slant. Their audience is clearly middle-aged business people who want to stay informed on current events. Some links are internal, sending me to expanded articles, videos, and reporter bios. Others are external, sending me to articles from news sources such as the Washington Post and Macworld.
A publication of this size has many people keeping its site up-to-date. There are multiple contact emails, but they are anonymous such as letters@newsweek.com and tech@newsweek.com. Newsweek online readers can comment on articles as well as the blog. At the bottom of their page, their interactive media are listed, which include Facebook, Digg, Twitter, LinkedIn and Buzz up. They are affiliated with msnbc, the Washinton Post, Slate, Aol News, the Big Money, and Budget Travel. These are listed at the bottom of the home page under ‘News from trusted Newsweek partners.” The domain name, www.newsweek.com, means you know exactly what news source you’re looking at. I find the site to be extremely accurate, mirroring the print magazine’s accuracy.
The site is professional looking, well organized, and free of GSP errors. Not only is the writing style is appropriate for the topic, the articles are written in a fresh and interesting manner. The format is easy to use and very modern, especially when you click through to an article, where you will find pictures and video of the topic. You can also make comments or post directly to your social media site. All images, sound, and video work in conjunction with the site. The navigation is effective although I often find news publication’s online source to be more difficult to maneuver than the print version. The ads have a heading, albeit small gray font, that says advertisement. The editorials have pictures of the writers, helping users recognize that they are opinion pieces. The rest of the content is news.
The online version of Newsweek gives me no reason to doubt its credibility. However, I still would recommend one change: reorganize. I find this to be an issue for many online news publications. They have so much content that it can be overwhelming for the user without proper organization. Other than that, the site is effective, credible and modern.
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