The Independent online: not what it could be
Andrew Mwenda has set out to create something new and compelling in Uganda's news media industry. I cannot say whether he has succeeded in print, but on the web, he has failed. The Independent launched in December 2007 with some challenges, but its the newspaper's website that I will be discussing here. And not favorably.
First of all, let us be frank about one thing. Ugandan's newspapers have poorly designed websites. Take a look at them: The New Vision, The Monitor, The Observer. None of them have a beautiful design (layout, navigation, or readability). Yes, they get the job done, but they also leave a lot to be desired. The fonts are small, which makes reading difficult. None of them have very good search engines, nor do they make good use of linking. It is not possible to sort articles by author, or browse the archives. And the advertising strategies are atrocious (I am talking about you here Monitor).
This is where The Independent had to establish itself as the best of the field. Given Mwenda's penchant for upsetting powerful people and reporting on sensitive matters, he needs a more complete web strategy than his competitors. Already he has faced a few problems finding a reliable printer. By creating a full-featured site, he would be able to operate his publishing program and syndicate his content regardless of how the paper fares in print. It is also an opportunity to build a brand name in news, particularly with the Ugandan diaspora.
Mwenda should have committed enough resources to creating a site that stands apart from those of the existing news publishers. This would have cost a lot of money back in the 90s, but in recent years the advances in open source content management systems like Drupal, Joomla and Mambo have made this possible, particularly for a publisher working on a budget. There is no longer any need to pay a developer thousands of dollars for a custom content management system. That money can now be put towards creating a custom online publishing workflow and an outstanding design.
Instead, The Independent has a website that looks like it was designed using a stencil from the early 1990s. The word "Uncensored" is misspelled in the header, the layout is made of tables, the colour red is abused, and in some articles paragraphs hardly exist at all. Also, the advertising strategy appears to have been copied from The Monitor, which is not a smart move considering that that newspaper does not handle its online advertising with any consideration to its readers.
As bad as things are, it would not be that hard to clean this site up a little. Get rid of all the text animations to start with. Also, space out the elements a little and let that white space flow through the site. Ease off on the red. And when it comes to fonts, aspire.
Now I know that The Independent is just starting out, and there is such a thing as humble beginnings, so I am certain that when Mwenda and his team get around to it, they will see that they are letting a great opportunity go by.
Your thoughts please...
Reader comments
I'm an American so the Web site is the only way I'll be able to read The Independent. You make a good point that "it would not be hard to clean this site up a little." Your suggestions are all good ones. By all means, taking up your suggestions would make the site better. But Web publishing is different from print publishing. To really make the Web site more valuable it would take a serious full time editor. And to pay for that, an online revenue model which includes more than block ads. Free classifieds might drive enough traffic to actually make block ads pay for the site.
Thanks for the comment John.
You make a good point about creating a strategy that pays for the cost of an online editor. One way to do this would be to create a part-time position (they are a weekly, so this might be feasible) and an ads model that locks in advertisers at discounted rates for the short term, say 3 months. If the editor is able to do a good job the traffic will increase steadily, and the ad rates can go up, thereby covering the cost of full time position.
Already they are showing signs of being able to fix mistakes on the site (they corrected the spelling on "Uncensored"), so hopefully we can expect them to improve on the other little things that will make a difference.
You're right on everything you say, although I must say that the current site is slightly less painful than its predecessor. I don't give up my hope: One day we'll have a Ugandan online newspaper with the qualities of The Guardian and The Times...
@ John: I wish you could get hold of a copy. Unlike the website, the printed version of The Independent is brilliant! Maybe we suggest to Mwenda to give up the website and publish in PDF.
Filoug: I did not get a chance to see the paper in print. It is good to know that they paid attention to production and design in that medium.
Another way to improve the usability and raise the traffic is to allow commenting on the articles. At the moment, no other paper is doing this. Commenting creates a conversation (like the kind we are having here), and is a reason to come back to the piece time and again to follow that discussion.
Commenting features come as part of many CMS packages and blogging engines these days. However, that would mean having to assign moderation to someone. Volunteers might be willing to do it. Also, they can create an internship position (provide a stipend to cover transport and meals) and train someone who will possibly become part of the online department in the long term.
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